The Lesser Evil
by Smartasswalkin
Summary: The day of mourning for Konoha will soon become a day of celebration, for while it will take their greatest hero, it will also kill a demon and give them their greatest weapon. Dark fic, Lots of Violence, Rape Implied NOT WRITTEN OUT , Child Abuse, ex....
1. Prologue: The Aftermath

The Lesser Evil

The Lesser Evil

**Story Disclaimer:** I do not own anything having to do with Naruto or its ideas.

**Author's Notes:** This idea has been nagging me and nagging me for a month now and I can not concentrate on Shattered Dreams until I at least get started on this. So here's the Lesser Evil.

**Prologue: The Aftermath**

Three people stood looking down at the now ugly man that they had cherished and held in such high regards. This man was no more; all that was left was an empty carcass that was missing an arm and a good. The once bright eyes were dark, no longer showing the vitality they had once held. Clutched to his chest was a small bundle that squirmed drawing all eyes towards it.

For in this area nothing moved except those three people, for everything was dead.

What had once been a lush land filled with much greenery now held nothing but a barren wasteland. No vegetation was left and deep craters marked where either bodies had hit or disappeared under a powerful attack. The land had never seen such destruction, not even during one of the three great shinobi wars.

Where in the wars cries from the wounded might be heard at the end of the battle, here nothing was. For nothing could have survived what had happened on this night.

The oldest member of the three bent down picking the small bundle up and looking at it curiously. The mess of blonde hair on the child's head was amazing enough considering that this man knew the baby was new born. Not only that but it's size as well.

There were three other distinguishing things that made the baby more prominent to the old man. Well technically there were eight things, but he was counting six of those as just one.

The first happened to be that the child had a massive imprisonment seal placed on its stomach. It covered the child's entire upper body, and though the old man was proficient in seals he was no master. Though he could tell that the seal was meant to contain something, he knew no more.

The second was the six marks on the child's face three on each cheek. With the way they were positioned they appeared to be similar to whisker marks. Since the old man had been there during the child's birth he knew it had not had these scars when it was born. Though now it did a slightly puzzling fact.

The third and final surprising fact about this child was this it was not only completely silent but also looking about. Its head was lifted slightly, not much for it didn't have the muscle power or strong enough bones to support its head. But enough to make it obvious and with its eyes open the same blue eyes that the now dead man had once wielded were shown for all to see.

The old man sighed, sadly for had he not known what the dead man had meant to do he knew that even with his incredible knowledge he could not have figured it out. Oh there would have been suspicions but no definite proof.

His two companions looked at him as he sighed; the one to his left spoke. He was an older man showing his age far more prominently then the one holding the child but he was younger then his comrade. He also wore glasses and a pair of formal robes, in contrast to the old man's shinobi gear.

"So… he really went through with it." The man's voice was hesitant as he said it, and fear was evident in his voice as he spoke. He was unsure of how to deal with this… thing that had been a child for mere moments before the dead man had corrupted it.

The final living member in the area spoke, her voice similar to her taller comrades. Her clothes as well, though she seemed mildly braver then him when she spoke about the child. "We will have to bring… it… before the council. Its fate must be decided soon." The old man wheeled on the woman his face distorted into a grimace of pain at the woman's choice of words and a snarl of anger.

"You should not speak of this child that way. _He_ is our savior as much as my successor." He paused making sure that the implications of his words were soaked in by the two people with him. "We will leave now…" The old man looked down at the dead, larger version of the child in his arms. "We must meet the council."

As those words left the old mans mouth he felt a familiar feeling of foreboding. Similar to what he had felt when he'd charged through those tunnels to confirm the reports on what his student was doing with his villagers. The feeling also brought an unending sadness upon his shoulders.

† † † † †

Almost an hour later the old man and his two comrades stood in a very well furnished room. It was large and held a semi circular table that held a representative from every major shinobi clan in Konoha. Then ringed around it with plenty of room to spare was a completely circular table around which sat the entire civilian council. In the center of the entire room, half ringed by the Shinobi clans, and half by the civilian council sat the old man.

Along with his burden. On either side of him and set several feet back were his two comrades. As befitted their rank as senior advisors, it was their right to sit with him then the others. The old man sighed wondering what deity he had angered to bring such a thing on his head.

Or what deity was sick enough to bring such problems on a mere child's head. He shook his head to clear these errant thoughts and focused on what people were saying. It was just a loud clamor as many people spoke all at the same time. The old man grunted in such an annoyed manner that the shinobi immediately stopped speaking.

It took a moment, but the civilian council eventually realized that the shinobi had shut up because of the old man and not because they were conceding their positions. The old man looked around himself to meet the eyes of the majority of people within this room before speaking. His voice a wizened baritone that had too much softness for any shinobi, and yet an underlying sound of steel was always evident to remind people of his prowess.

"We are gathered for a reason, and it is not to bicker incessantly." He paused to strengthen his gaze into a steely glare at the loudest talkers before continuing on. "Namikaze Minato, formerly the Yondaime Hokage and the Yellow Flash of Konoha has sealed the Kyuubi no Kitsune into this child in order to save our village."

The old man was about to continue on when the talking started again, and the old mans steely gaze developed a hint of true unrefined anger into it. And blood lust began to leak into the room; several of the shinobi clenched their jaws while the civilians looked on in surprise.

As soon as the killing intent had been unleashed the child in the old man's arms had _laughed._ Any normal child would have cried but this… thing… had chosen to laugh at the formidable anger of the old man. It was relatively humbling for the old man, and he found it… entertaining. Well slightly, the kids laugh was rather disrespectful and had slightly ruined the moment.

But, what else could he expect from a recently born child who had already experienced more then most thirteen year olds.

Shaking his head slightly he spoke again, that underlying anger more present then before. "This child is _not_ the Kyuubi no Kitsune. He is the jailor of the demon, not its reincarnation. I believe he should be raised honorably as a hero, as the Yondaime also wanted."

Instant chaos ensued at the old mans words, as literally everyone bickered for the man's attention in order to tell him he was _wrong_ about how to treat the boy. Finally it was the Hyuuga's who drew the attention of the room. The man sitting there had been clan head for almost ten years by this point and his own heir was due to be born soon. "I do not believe that the… thing… should be raised at all, Hokage-Sama. It is too dangerous to be left alive, the Kyuubi no Kitsune could easily break free from such a… _weak_… prison."

The old man, having been identified as the new and old Hokage of Konoha frowned at the Hyuuga. He'd been hoping that the man's semi-close relationship with the Namikaze clan would have him supporting the boy being raised as a hero. Apparently that bridge had been burned as soon as the man who had carried the name had died.

Though admittedly he hadn't come right out and say it should be killed, he'd merely planted the _idea_ of such a thing into everyone's heads. Clamoring from the civilian members began to call for the child's death. The Hokage sighed, more in annoyance this time then anything else.

"I believe a child that posses' such a demon could become a valuable tool and weapon for the village." The icy calm tone that these words were delivered in cut through the bickering of people and silence ensued. All eyes turned to the man that had said this. He was of average height, only about five foot seven, and had long black heir like the Hyuuga's only wilder and his eyes were black instead.

The fan symbol on his clothing marked him as an Uchiha, and the quality of his clothes and his bearing marked him as Uchiha Fugaku the clan head. The Hokage frowned; he'd suspected Danzo to make this request, not the Uchiha. In fact he'd figured the Uchiha would call for the boy's death more then anyone else.

The Hokage considered his thoughts; there were eight major shinobi clans in the village. Well their used to be nine but since the Hatake's had fallen from glory and the Namikaze's were now considered dead (since he didn't even _consider _telling these idiots the boys heritage, that was an immediate death sentence) the Shinobi council had once again devolved onto the same clans that had founded it. Except one. The Senju were down to two living members, one would more then likely not live through the night.

The other, hated the village and would not return to claim their seat any time soon. The Hokage sighed as he considered where each shinobi clan would place their vote, for that was what really mattered. Each portion of the civilian council generally followed a certain clan's guidance when in voting. It was, obviously, meant to garner favors from that clan by supporting them.

"I'd like the call a preliminary vote then and see where we stand." The Hokage frowned turned to look at Koharu, his long time advisor and former teammate. He knew both of his _friends_ more then likely wanted the boy dead and it… irritated him to no end. But the agreement of the council was with the advisors and the Hokage visibly ground his teeth in anger as he spoke. His voice flat and commanding as he did so.

"Fine but this is merely a preliminary to see where people stand, it will not be followed until a _final_ vote has been done." Everyone understood what that meant. If the Hokage didn't like the results they would return to the debate, it was his prerogative to do so.

"With that said, you have three choices. Let the boy live and be viewed as a Hero, Turn the boy into our 'ultimate' weapons, or kill him." The Hokage continued, voicing his opinion on each of the voting choices by simple voice inflection. He wasn't sure which thought he hated more, the second or third. Both were horrible but which would be better for the boy in the end?

He didn't know, nor was he sure he wanted to really think too much into it.

This time when he spoke it was to have the representatives of each clan stand and be recognized for what they were voting for. The Civilian council would follow.

† † † † †

The Hokage frowned, he had not expected the Preliminary vote to go well, but he had thought that maybe sometime of debate would bring more people around. But it appeared that in such a large crowd it was hard to convince anyone to let go of their prejudices, long enough to see a new thought.

It had been over three hours now since the _second_ preliminary vote, which meant it was five hours from the _first_ one. And still nothing seemed swayed much. In fact it was a damned near even tie with what to do.

Exactly one, repeat _ONE_, clan and its allies voted to have the boy treated as a hero and raised normally. The Sarutobi clan and its allies among the poorer merchants would end up being the deciding factor. This was obvious.

The Hyuuga, Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka clans plus their civilian council allies were all on the kill the boy bandwagon. Though that was one more clan then the Weapon Bandwagon the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka clans didn't have as strong a following in the civilian council as all the other clans. It was what was tying up this whole bothersome affair so much.

The Aburame, Inuzuka, and Uchiha clans plus their civilian council allies wanted to make the boy into a powerful weapon. It was quite simple wherever the Hokage choose to support would be the one that would win.

Not by an overwhelming majority, but definitely a win. At the moment the votes were something like a hundred and ten to a hundred and thirteen. Clearly not enough to pick one of the choices. It was at this point that Danzo choose to make his presence known.

He'd kept relatively quiet allowing the shinobi clans to duce it out and decide who would do what, it was probably what was making this so dangerous. The Hokage _knew_ that if Danzo had been the one to offer up the idea the Inuzuka and Aburame's would _never_ have gotten any where near it. But it had been the _Uchiha's_ who'd offered it up.

Though they were generally noted to be the most aggressive members, well in a war like fashion, it hadn't been entirely surprising that they would give such a plan thought. And everyone knew an Uchiha did not follow anyone else's thought unless it benefited them the most.

"I believe, as I'm sure a majority of the rest of us here, that you should be decisive Hokage-Sama. You're clan could easily choose which option would be the most beneficial as it is obvious that _no one_ here will support your option. So it is a waste of time for us to be debating about it any more, _your_ clan has become the decisive factor Hokage-Sama."

The Hokage looked up at the scarred and mutilated man with an obvious frown adorned on his features. He felt like he had been set up, everyone knew how he wanted to protect that boy. And it would have been easily apparent even without his arguing and before the session had ever been caused that he would protect that boy. Simply because he believed no child should be treated so horribly.

Frowning the man wondered if he _had_ been set up. He would feel guilty for any decision made here, but he would feel doubly guilty for anything now that it _was_ his clan's choice. He made an unpleasant sound in the back of his throat as he considered all the options. Minato would not want either of these choices for his son, but what _would_ he want? The Hokage sat up in his chair, there was only one choice he could make for the boy.

Though it would weigh heavily on his heart the old man knew he must do so because it was the _only_ option left available to him. He couldn't let the boy die; he was the last hope for his clan. Though he would be treated harshly at least he would be alive and there would still be the chance that he could become better accepted as time passed, and wounds healed. Or so the old man hoped.

"So be it. The Sarutobi clan and the Hokage move to support for the boy to become a weapon of Konoha." Not many were surprised, though some undoubtedly were. It was a choice between killing the boy and giving him a hard, uncaring life. The old man sighed calling for the final vote, there were still details to be hashed out but at least the ultimate fate of the boy had been determined.

It took less then ten minuets for the final decision to be made, and it was amazing that the moment the Hokage himself moved to support the issue the Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara clans also moved their support leaving only the Hyuuga's to support the boys death and giving them the more then two thirds majority they needed to win. The Hokage frowned; the more he thought about this the more and more it felt like a trap to him.

"With this decided that means the boy is officially made a ward of the village and put under my direct control. Until he has the capability of molding chakra he will be housed in the village under the assumed name of Uzumaki Naruto." The Hokage frowned, hoping against hope that the boy would be a late bloomer with his chakra. He doubted it, but there was always that hope.

Plus maybe he would be able to get some acceptance and love in the short time he would have to receive it. "Once he is capable of molding chakra he will begin his training to become a weapon under the teachers chosen for him. Until then he will need a place to stay, my cla…" The man was interrupted before he could finish, and this irritated him to no end for it was the Hyuuga doing so.

"I think it would be better if he were sent to live in the Orphanage. It would not do well for any clan to raise the boy for it might give him… loyalties to that clan more then any other. None of us will want any other to think they're trying to control our new tool." The Hokage frowned, he'd feared someone might suggest this and the way _everyone_ was clamoring to follow this thought was unsettling.

He wouldn't be able to raise the boy with the love and affection he would need to sustain himself. Not if the entire council forbade anyone from adopting him, as it appeared they were going to do. The man looked down at the child feeling the need to weep for the horrible fate that he had been destined to.

"_Fine._" The Hokage's soft, cold voice cut through the voices like a scalpel through a person's skin. "If his mother does not survive he will become an Orphan until his ability to be trained is assured." He continued on in his cold, highly annoyed, killing intent laced voice. It brooked no argument, and no one would ever attempt one when he used this voice.

"However in concession I am creating _two_ laws this night. Either you accept these two laws _or_ my clan will be allowed to raise the boy as I see fit until he must be trained." He glared at the gathered people, daring someone to contest his words. But no one did… yet. They would wait to hear the laws before anything was said, if anything would be said at all.

"The first law will be that from this day forwards no one but myself and the boy shall be allowed to speak of what is sealed into the boy. _No one_! The penalty for breaking this law will be death, painful and publicly. Only myself, and the boy when he comes of age, will be allowed to give anyone permission to speak of it."

No one said anything; it wasn't like this was really a bad law. It didn't help anyone but the boy, and that was iffy at best for there were loop holes everywhere. The Hokage paused; he knew this next law would be the one that might bring objection. But he made sure the pause was made to look like a way to intimidate people rather then the hesitation that it really was.

"The second law will be that when the boy becomes a member of ANBU I will tell him of his heritage and until then _no one_ will know what it is. Or if they manage to find out will not be aloud to speak of it, until it is publicly announced. If this law is broke, death will be your punishment." Frowns creased many a person's forehead as they thought about it. _No one_ wanted the boy to become an official shinobi, that might give him too much standing.

But _everyone_ wanted to know who the boy's parents were. And how were they supposed to find out now and brag to each other and find out who'd found out first? They nodded though, it was acceptable. For the Hokage had _sworn_ to make it a public announcement. This meant that eventually everyone would know and the law would be repealed. The bragging could begin then.

"Good. Then you are all dismissed, I will take him to the orphanage if his mother dies."

It was a horrible end to a horrible day. It wasn't what anyone wanted in the end, but it was the _only_ outcome and as the Hokage thought about it he figured this was the lesser evil of the two choices that he had. And the only choice he could have made, he just hoped that in a couple years when he looked back on this day he would feel the same.

in a couple years when he looked back on this day he would feel the same.

† † † † †

**Author's Notes:** So hopefully some of you will tell me what you think. And to answer questions I would have if I was reading this:

For those of you who like pairings – Don't ask because I don't know. If it ever does crop up you'll know, until then –shrugs-.

This won't be a SUPER POWER Naruto thingy majigers but please consider that he _is_ going to be training from the Age of four so he _is_ going to be powerful. But he will have his faults.

Yes, this is a kinda doom and gloom kind of thing right now. If it picks up and the sun decides to come out, I'll be nice and warn you guys. Wouldn't want anyone dying of surprise.

**Next Chapter: **The Village


	2. Chapter 1: The Village

The Lesser Evil

The Lesser Evil

**Author's Notes:** Well more 'Doom and Gloom' stuff. Though this one is a bit… _worse_ then the last chapter. No political things going on here, it's all about Young Naruto's life for the moment. Enjoy.

**Chapter 1: The Village**

The well lit room held four people, three adults and one child. The adults were scowling and glaring at the child as they conversed, while the boy remained pressed against the wall watching them warily. The boy's age was indecipherable; he was large enough to be considered a five year old. But his face made him look more like a three year old.

However only a small few could not know his real age just by looking at him, the rest just knew because of _who_ he was. Finally silence descended upon the group and the boy clutched his little torn frog closer to his chest. He didn't know how he'd gotten it, only that he had.

And the fact that it had always looked like it did. With one of its legs missing and stuffing showing out of it. One eye gone while the other hung loosely by the side of its face. It was also incredibly dirty so that the original colors were barely recognizable anymore.

It was the boy's only friend.

The only female of the group made a menacing sound in the back of her throat as she stepped towards him. Her tone clearly angry as she all but screamed at him. "You've caused too much trouble to let it go unnoticed this time, you demon." The little boy shivered as his fear overtook him. He opened his mouth to croak out some of the few words he knew.

"What I do?" He was young, but everyday from six am in the morning until three in the afternoon he was forced to study and learn. Though he didn't have a perfect grasp of all things he was learning he was much farther along then anyone else his age. "Everything!" The woman spat at him and unleashed her anger in the form of a pathetic amount of killing intent.

The by shriveled back inching closer and closer to the door, trying to make sure he wasn't noticed as he did so. It was then he was stopped by one of the men as he spoke, looking down at the boy. "You're mere presence causes trouble. For this you will be disciplined."

Before the boy could react strong hands gripped his small arms. In fact the mans hand covered the boys entire forearm and he froze. Whimpering in pain as that steely grip only strengthened. He didn't know what he'd done but apparently he'd been a bad boy again. He turned fearful blue eyes to the other two adults in the room. Neither had any weapons, or paddles that the boy had seen other children disciplined with. Instead they would use their fists.

The boy's cries of pain were rewarded with harder punches, and when once he yelled in his terror his jaw was broken by the man who held him in place.

† † † † †

Weeks later the small boy was standing in front of an apartment with the Hokage of the village flanking him. The man seemed angry, in fact he was emitting a large amount of killing intent, enough that none of the villagers would approach him. The boy withdrew into himself even more as he felt the familiar anger washing over him.

After his jaw had been broken it hadn't taken long for him to lose consciousness. He'd woken up in the hospital, the majority of his broken bones healed, as well as the bruises that had been left. There were a few scars from where his bones had pierced the skin when they'd been shattered. But there was little else to attest that he had been abused.

It had also been the final straw for the Hokage, for he had removed the boy from the orphanage. Telling him that he would now be living in the small one bedroom, one bath apartment that had no kitchen. He would eat breakfast and lunch with his instructor and dinner in the nearby restaurant. The boy fidgeted as the Hokage showed him into the small apartment, attempting to soothe him.

Though the boy said little, he did watch the Hokage with slightly less wariness then the other people around him. As the old man sighed in resignation and turned to leave the boys broken voice stopped him with two words. "Thank… you." The Hokage turned around watching as the boy looked back to the ground in embarrassment.

"Your welcome, Naruto-Kun." The boy just nodded and watched the Hokage leave, he wondered briefly if he could ever be as good as the old man was. Then he abruptly dismissed the thought as stupid. He wasn't good enough to be like that, because he was just a demon. Everyone said so.

The boys life continued for some months, until the day of his fourth birthday rolled around. But make no mistake, his life simply continuing, did not mean that he did not deal with the daily threats.

Since being placed in the apartment the boy had, had no more then ten attempts on his life and several beat down sessions. But that _almost_ paled in comparison to the emotional pain he'd been put through. For three things had happened to the boy that had caused him to withdraw even more into the shell he was creating.

The first had been the destruction, before his own eyes, of his one friend Gama-Chan. He'd cried when that had happened, but not during the beating that had followed it.

The second was when he had gone to the park to try and play after one of his lessons. He'd seen a little girl with pink hair being picked on, and he'd stuck up for her. He'd asked, brokenly, if he could play with her but before any response could be given two adults (who he assumed were her parents) had come to her aide.

They'd spit on him and called him demon, but that wasn't the worst, for he was used to that. But the very girl he had helped shunned him, doing the same as her parents. He cried then too, for he had never felt so lonely or betrayed before. He didn't cry from the beating he received from the pink haired girl's adult protectors and their posse though.

The last, had been the final time he would ever go to the park. He'd finally worked up the courage to go back and try again, albeit with a different person. Only for every family to take their children and walk out of the park as soon as he entered. Some called him demon and spit on him. Other shoved him, and then more still kicked him once he'd fallen down.

He cried then too, but it was after this that he swore never to cry again. And he hadn't. It had been months since that last incident and he'd yet to shed a single cursed tear.

But now was the day of his birthday and he'd been learning about all of the villages past leaders. He'd just gotten onto the topic of the Yondaime Hokage only a month and a half prior. And he found himself enraptured by all the stories and information that was collected on the man. So he also knew that the day of his birthday was also the day that the Yondaime had died.

He wondered if that was why people called him a demon, because he'd been born the day their greatest leader had died slaying the evil demon fox that had attacked them. He didn't know, but he thought that maybe this was part of it at least. It had to be, because their behavior made no sense at all. Not to the boy at least.

But the boy thought he'd come to the right conclusion and as such he thought he had a plan on how to at least remedy part of it. He figured maybe if he went and prayed for the Yondaime on the day of his death and celebrated with the others the day of the demon's death they would accept him. That maybe they would let him play and make friends for once.

But this was, as he would soon learn a traitorous feeling in his heart and mind that could and would not be tolerated any longer.

So with the boy's plan he set out in his common clothing to go to the temple where the masses prayed for the Yondaime's benevolent soul. He got halfway there before he was ambushed.

There were only about ten people, but they grabbed the boy and drug him through an alley way until he was being held against a wall by strong arms. Fear permeated the boy's every sense as he looked into the sickening faces of his attackers. They were _grinning_ at him in such a way that he boy feared to even look at them. One of them wore a forehead protector symbolizing him as a shinobi of the village.

The shinobi pulled out a scalpel from one of his pouches and stepping forwards. "I guess I'll do the honors first." The boy shivered at the shinobi's cold, almost eager tone. "W…why?" The boy's voice quaked with his fear as the man approached, but the shinobi only smirked before speaking. Never halting in his approach.

"Because you are a demon that should have died at birth." With those words a pair of arms gripped each limb holding him firmly to the ground. "Make it quick, we all want our turn as well." The shinobi merely nodded as he cut the shirt from the boys chest, moments later the young boy screamed his pain to the world only to have his head lifted roughly and a gag tied around his mouth.

His head was slammed back into the ground, without ceremony causing his already blurring vision to fade to black for a moment. When he regained consciousness, what felt like only moments later, he realized he could feel _nothing_. He was still on the ground but he wasn't being held down any longer. However when he tried to force his body to stand back up it was impossibly to do so, none of his limbs seemed to want to obey him.

It was over an hour later that he finally did manage to force his brutalized body into the air. He couldn't tell what had been done to him but the look of all the blood on the ground made it apparent that something certainly had. Not for the first time, the boy wondered why he was still alive. Especially after such a thing had been done to him, surely no one had that much blood.

As the boy forced himself to move, using the wall as support he became aware of the fact that he had no clothes on. He did, however, refuse to look down at himself for he knew it would probably not be a sight he could handle at the moment. It took him a half an hour to force himself out of the alley way and into the street. As he looked around he could see no one, which was probably a good thing, all things considered.

He continued to force himself along, his limbs gaining more strength as time passed. It was then that he became aware of a low mumbling, he looked around wearily. It was easily to see the shadows that flickered across everything, but not what those shadows contained. He frowned, a sense of danger swept over him as he looked again. It almost seemed like some of those shadows were _moving_. But that was impossible, shadows couldn't move.

He didn't get more then four more steps when out of several of the shadows stepped more people. The boy attempted to take a step backwards but found that his body was now becoming even weaker. This time with fear. He could _see_ the hate in their eyes. That was when they advanced, not bothering to take their slow time with it, and as the boy's eyes darted around trying to find a way out he found that the world could indeed be far crueler then he'd imagined.

He started the process of withdrawing into himself as the crowd approached, it would he hoped deaden his mind to the pain he was about to experience. An errant thought flittered across his mind, that maybe this would mean the end. That he would get to relax and the hate would stop and he wouldn't be attacked any more. That he could see his Gama-Chan again.

But then that thought was squashed by the second one that followed it. Gama-Chan had been _good,_ but he was nothing but a bad boy. A demon, that's what everyone said. But his thoughts didn't get a chance to continue on as the lead ranks of the group finally reached him.

The first hit knocked him down, but that was when hands were jerking him back up and he continued to hear the sound of something meeting flesh but could feel nothing. A detached part of his brain started laughing as the sound became less and less audible to him. The boy blinked and as he opened his eyes he found himself in a… odd… place.

It was too dark to really see anything and the lights that were their flickered on and off. The boy looked around wondering how he'd gotten here; maybe he'd passed out and been drug to another place. But that logic didn't follow any known facts so the boy dismissed it as incorrect.

Instead of continue to stand where he was the boy following the slowly dimming and flashing lights. Maybe they would bring him somewhere useful?

He didn't know but he hoped so. He could hear the sloshing of the water as his feet drug through them. Almost like the lights slowly dimming he could feel his energy slowly being sapped away as well. He wondered why that was. Maybe in connection to what had happened to him.

It didn't take long for the lights to lead him to a dimly lit chamber that was…. Massive. To say the least. He could just barely make out the bars that were a good twenty feet away. But they were only made visible because of a white piece of paper that read 'seal'. That was if the boy was right with his kanji, he was pretty sure but a chance for a mistake was always possible.

He blinked as suddenly large red, slitted; orbs appeared in the vast darkness behind the glowing paper. **"Boy! What are you doing here?" **The things voice felt like a living thing that tried to kill him, but he fought off the feeling with much difficulty. The boy's voice cracked through the air now, much less intimidating then the things.

In fact it was… filled with fear. "I… I don't know." The thing growled, before lunging at the bars, though they held the boy could see the paper glow brighter as the demon did so. **"You should not be here, you're much too young to be capable of self reflection and I did not call you here."**

The boy once again felt as though something was crawling along his skin when the thing spoke, but it was even harder to fight then before. It wasn't impossible, because he finally got rid of the sensation but it left him even more tired then before.

That was when the thing's eyes narrowed as it finally took in the boy's general appearance. **"You are being attacked."** Though the words were made to be a question, they were said as a statement. There was no disputing that fact. So the boy just nodded, his unused vocal cords already hurt from all their use in the day.

"**This means you are probably near death… that could explain your presence here."** Now the thing was only talking to itself, and though the boy was used to being ignored he felt… irritated that this thing would do so as well. "Who… are you?" The boys hesitant voice came towards the thing and made it look up, a sickening grin coming across its hidden face.

The massive white, pointed teeth that showed only caused a shiver to run through the boy's body. **"A demon you could never dream of matching."** The demon, as he had now been identified to the boy did not seem inclined to say anything more. But now that it was focusing more intently on the boy, it decided that maybe it could gain some advantages through this.

"**Would you like to live, boy?"** The boy froze at the question thinking back to Gama-Chan's death and all the beatings and pain that he'd been through. No, the boy decided he really didn't want to live and so as he looked up he did what few people ever do. He admitted that he didn't want the live any longer, and meant it. "No… I… find it painful to do so."

The boy's quiet, hoarse voice carried easily in the silence. The demon merely chuckled in response to the boys answer. He had not expected it, but from what little he had gleaned from the child's memory he knew why the boy had come to this conclusion. **"Good, then I will help you live. Because I don't even know what will happen to me when you die."**

The boy's head shot up so quickly in his surprise, that several vertebrae could be heard snapping as they tried to catch up. "B…but I don't _want_ to." The demon just chuckled even more and this time, the boy didn't fight the feeling it gave him. Instead he surrendered to it, he was just too tired to bother with it now. **"I know, that's why you will live. Anyways I'm going to give you a… gift… of sorts. Though you won't think its so for very long."**

A moment later the boy could fill himself being overwhelmed by some odd sensation, and his vision was spinning madly. He found himself staring into a crowd of people. He was on his stomach, head lain limply on the ground as he felt pain coursing through his back. But rather then feel indifferent or afraid of it he felt… _angry_.

He could feel that strange feeling again, it was forming, near his navel and he feel it rushing about his body. This new awareness of his body was wholly unsettling. Especially because it meant that he could no longer completely ignore the pain that was coursing from his body. Sudden gasps in the crowd alerted him that he must be doing something weird.

He heard someone murmur the word 'chakra' before a vicious blow to the side of his head had him losing consciousness.

† † † † †

**Author's Notes:** Uhm to answer any questions that might crop up here –

Ok I know having him talk to Kyuubi so soon probably made _someone_ mad, but hey the Kyuubi didn't say _who_ he was only that he was a demon. So there's still going to be surprises around the corners. Plus I figured since a life or death situation was what aloud Naruto to meet Kyuubi in the manga the same would be needed here, even if he didn't need the chakra.

Ahh for those of you who are probably wondering what the guys did with the scalpel, you'll find out soon enough, no point in spoiling all the fun.

**Next Chapter:** The Start


	3. Chapter 2: The Start

The Lesser Evil

**The Lesser Evil**

**Author's Notes:** Anyways, slightly more gloom and doom and a look into how they are going to be training our Weapon. Plus some forms of control that they will be practicing. Meh, anyways I feel like I am rushing through this initial part, and probably am. But you'll get a more action packed chapter for the next one. Anyways onto… The Start.

**Chapter 2: The Start**

When the boy next awoke he found himself in a strange place. It wasn't the hospital; in fact he was in a very strange place. He found himself staring into, what appeared to be an underground forest. He knew he was in a building from the simple fact that there was a massive concrete roof above his head.

But then he was also amongst many trees, and as the boy forced himself to his hands and knees he heard a rattle. Looking down he found his left ankle had a chain around it that was attached to some thing several feet away. There was also a heavy metal collar around his neck with a long chain hanging from it as well.

Other then that, the boy found that he was wearing nothing. He avoided looking at the white marks that adorned his chest, though he knew at least one thing on it was cut to say the word demon. Frowning the boy managed to push himself to his feet and look around in… curiosity. He was amazed, but he didn't quite know about what.

It was about now that a gruff male voice came to his ears, the boy wheeled around to face it. "Ahh look its awake. Finally." The boy felt his fists clench as he glared at the man in anger, he felt that same unnatural feeling being to boil through his body again. "Ahh, I think he wants to kill us." The other person, another male spoke. Though his voice seemed to hold a bit too much pleasure in it.

However before the boy could respond, or even comprehend the words the man who had spoken first appeared in front of the boy punching him, hard, in the face. The boys body lifted off the ground and he was sent flying backwards, until he reached the end of his chain. The man had grabbed the chain that was attached to the collar and it was far shorter then the one on his ankle.

His body snapped back towards the man as he pulled skidding on the ground. He landed in a heap next to the mans feet, and received a vicious kick in the ribs that sent him rolling a couple of feet. "Lesson number one, you will show no emotion." The mans cold tone, brooked no argument.

"Lesson number two, you will address anyone and everyone with the utmost respect or receive your punishment." The man grinned, sadistically as he knelt next to the small blonde boy. He pulled out a small remote that had one button on it.

"Your punishment can be admistered with physical force if need be. Or through the collar on your neck. You will receive a punishment for every rule you break. I have already demonstrated some of your physical punishments, now I will demonstrate the collar one." The mans thumb lifted and hit the button, a moment later the boys scream pierced the air as he writhed on the ground.

The pain stopped minuets later. "Lesson numbers three, you will follow all orders given by your superiors, or you will receive your punishments. No hesitation is aloud." The man grinned again, giving the boy another kick in the ribs to emphasize his point. "Lesson number four, you will not speak unless spoken to. Punishments administered for every infraction."

Now grinning the man turned looking at his partner who approached dragging a ragged looking man with him. The man wore leather pieces of armor and looked to be a bandit by appearance. They'd already gotten all the information they needed out of the sorry bastard, now they'd use him to train their new tool.

"We'll leave those as your four lessons for now." The man stood up, grabbing the boy by his hair and forcing him to do so as well. The bandit was looking on in sick horror as he'd watched them torture the child. "You're first order, is to kill that bandit." The boy couldn't move because of the grip that was placed on his skull, but his eyes did widen in horror.

He knew killing was bad… people weren't supposed to kill other people. But then his mind clearly recalled the pain he had experienced and the 'lessons' the man had just spoken of. The man holding his hair let go and the boy stumbled forwards he looked frightened as he faced the man he was to kill and then he looked at the man who was ordering it. His face instantly turned a shade whiter as he saw the remote.

Then he was writhing on the ground again as the man pushed the button, a few minuets later he was staggering to his feet. "Kill him." The boy looked at the man and back at the one he had to kill. He croaked out his first words since waking, "H…how?" The man scowled looking at the boy, before throwing a kunai at his feet and then promptly smashing his fist into the boys face several times.

"Remember your lessons boy. No emotion." The blonde boy forced himself up, again, only this time grabbing the weapons handle as he did so. He drug himself towards the bandit, fear evident in both their faces. Raising the kunai the boy was about to hit the man in the chest, where his heart should be when he hesitated.

It was all the sadistic man hold the bandit needed as he flashed three kunai into each of the boys arms. The boy crumbled backwards from the impact and his blood was left to coat the ground. "Do. Not. Hesitate." The sadistic man grated out, making sure to say each word slowly.

"Now kill." The boy grabbed one of the weapons now in his arm driving it forwards, into the mans chest hoping to avoid any more pain that might come his way by ending it quickly. He continued stabbing until he was snatched off the blood hulk that had been a man.

He was crying so hard that he couldn't see anything and he vaguely remembered his oath not to cry again. He wondered if he should make another, but the tall man was yelling at him, beating him. He said something about disobeying two lessons and a moment later the boy was writhing again. Only he lost consciousness before they let up. He felt two things in his body, the first was odd. As it felt like something had left him, like a flower wilting.

The other… was a deep chuckling that reminded him of the demon.

† † † † †

An old man wearing the robes of the Hokage sat slumped in his chair as he looked at the report that had _finally_ made its way to his desk. It was at times like these that he did not want to be the leader of this village any longer. He frowned, as he continued to read the report. His frown slowly creased into a scowl as he read how the ANBU guards meant to protect the boy stood by and _watched_ the boy be beaten and tortured by the villagers.

The man felt a sick revulsion for his village in this instant, almost like the Kyuubi _should_ have destroyed it. Frowning the old man swung his chair around to look out the windows. The village was quiet and happy as ever, and seemingly innocent. After seeing this report, the Hokage could never believe that lie. For under the pulse of Konoha a monster lurked, ready to strike and destroy whatever rose against it.

He frowned, eyes closing as he reviewed the reports contents in his mind. The boy's death had been faked, immediately after he had accidentally molded chakra. The Chakra he'd used had been meant to defend the boy and had only minor injured a few people. Still he had molded chakra which meant his training had already started this morning.

The Hokage frowned as he thought about that. Since the boy's fate had been determined four years ago they had been picking out his instructors and planning his training regimen. The Hokage had memorized it, and because of that he _knew_ that the boys mind would break quickly and become even easier to mold after what had happened. Though now, at least, the villagers appeared to think they had killed the Kyuubi vessel and thus the Kyuubi itself.

He'd seen the parties being thrown and it _sickened_ him to know what it was about. Especially since the medic that had been chosen to not only to train the boy, but also to make sure he had the proper diet and healed from his wounds correctly, had finished his examination of the boy.

The _bastards_ that had given him the scars had done several other things to him. For one, they'd broken damn near every bone in his hands, wrist, feet, and ankles. Though those had healed before the mob, they'd been rebroken again during the riot. The thing they had used to scar the boy, had, had some kind of poison on it that forced it to scar.

As such those scars could _never___leave the boy's body. They'd castrated the boy, as was apparent by the scar he had, but apparently the Kyuubi had managed to regenerate that only leaving a large visible scar t attest to whatever had been done. But worst of all, they'd raped the boy.

And the Hokage knew at least one shinobi had been apart of this attack, he just needed to find out which one it was.

The old man sighed again; this was beginning to get ridiculous. But at least the boy's suffering at the villagers hands was over. Though whether that was worse then what he was now going to have to deal with was an unknown factor. The old man shrugged pushing himself up, he had to meet with the council again. They would need to know that the boy had started his training, though he was willing to bet they already had learned.

He was pretty sure that the council had been the one instigating the boy's beatings, and he couldn't wait to rub it in their faces that because of what they had done the boy had developed some new characteristics. Oh yes… this was at least going to be mildly entertaining for him. He would get some form of payback on those traitorous bastards and _enjoy_ it.

† † † † †

Naruto was pulling on the much too large clothing that had once been worn by the man he had killed. It had been explained to him that for the duration of training, anyone he killed all their belongings would then become his. As such he was no longer naked, though the clothes would go through a long adjustment to be made to fit his small frame.

They were also going to let him keep the kunai he had killed the man with; they said he'd need it. Naruto continued to look at the ground as the tutor droned on and on about his soon to be schedule. He felt… empty. That was the only word for it.

He looked up, and frowned slightly. He knew he could get into trouble for it, but he couldn't help it. The man had just finished explaining the boys schedule, and it was a bit ridiculous. The boy would wake at five, every morning. He would eat breakfast and get ready for the day, by five fifteen he would be studying with the 'Knowledge Tutor' as he was to be known.

At seven fifteen the boy would begin taijutsu training until twelve fifteen. From there he would get to eat lunch, and while eating he would have recited all of the lessons he was learning. At Twelve thirty he would begin chakra control exercises until two thirty. From there he would do emotional training until five thirty, from then it was (for six days a week) pain enhancement training until six and for the last day of the week, killing training.

He would east dinner as soon as he either killed his opponent or at six. At six fifteen he would begin weapons training until eight fifteen. Then until ten he would practice stealth and tracking training. He would go to bed at ten, and immediately begin his next days training at five.

Like a great big circle. Once he mastered all the chakra control exercises he would spend three days a week practicing ninjutsu, three days a week practicing Genjutsu, and one day of the week focusing on using his techniques in a spar. So he knew with this schedule that in seven days he would have to kill someone again.

He wondered how he would feel when it came to that, and then he wondered what kinds of items he would get from his next victim. He certainly hoped that his next victim's clothing fit better. They said that for today he would mainly do weapons and taijutsu training, the schedule would start tomorrow. He nodded, bowing to the man as he'd been ordered to do and moved off with the taijutsu trainer.

Naruto didn't know what to make of him, he was… weird. Though he had not spoken a word around Naruto since he had arrived, the boy instinctively knew that he could talk and that it would probably give him a headache if he did so. But, he wasn't weird because he wasn't talking, but because of what he was wearing. The one piece, stretchy green spandex outfit was kind of odds.

Even the boy knew that it wasn't right for someone to be wearing this. The man had been introduced as Maito Gai, or in other words Gai-Sama. The boy bowed to the man before stepping back a couple of feet, he was… wary of the large green clad man. "All right, we are going to test your youth… erm I mean your endurance by running. Try and keep pace with me."

The man had a gruff voice, and he sounded slightly excited at the beginning but then he'd fixed whatever it was he was saying. He looked… annoyed about something. Naruto figured it was aimed at him, as it generally was. He nodded, "Of course, Gai-Sama." The man looked at the boy and opened his mouth as though to say something but stopped before nodding. He took off at and easy paced jog, the boy following along. A respectful step behind the green clad Jounin.

† † † † †

Naruto jerked awake; looking about himself he shivered slightly. He'd only been training for seven days now, but he knew what today was. He pushed himself up, wondering what time it was. He still had to stay by his post chained to it like some kind of dog every night when he finished his training.

He'd made no _real_ progress though his steady progression was expected. You couldn't change a whole lot in only seven days, but he had changed a bit. He started to do a couple of stretched to get ready for the man who came every morning to take him to the stream where he'd bathe and wash his clothes and then eat. He caught his own food, generally fish, though he'd found out two days ago if he caught and killed something during the stealth and tracking training that he could eat it if he wanted.

Gai-Sama had shown him how to make a fire one time during practice, so he knew how to do that now and could have a warm meal. Though in truth he didn't care, as long as he got to eat it didn't matter. Of all his instructors the boy liked Gai-Sama the most; he was the nicest of the bunch.

It wasn't much long later when the tall man with the black hair, which wore a weird mask over his face, came and got him. Nor did it take long to get through the morning tasks or the knowledge tutoring. Taijutsu took much longer; Gai-Sama was still trying to get him the appropriate amount of stamina. He also had told the boy that they would start attaching weights to the boy once he could do the required amount of laps without them.

For the moment his Taijutsu was more focused on improving his strength and speed instead of working on any forms. A logical choice even if it was taking a long time. Lunch, was lunch. He was given all these pills to take and made to eat five bars that were said to have all the calories and nutrients a shinobi could need while on a long term mission.

All the boy knew was that one they tasted bad and two they were food. Chakra control training consisted of the boy trying climbing the trees without his hands while trying to keep a bunch of leaves attached to him at the same time. He was currently failing horribly, but at least he was trying. Even if he did envision something brutal every time the instructor hit that stupid button.

Emotional training was the hardest, and they generally mixed in pain enhancement training with this since it could be used to evoke emotions. It was about now that the boy began to get worried. At the moment he was having to look completely calm and collected. Completely detached while he was placed under a Genjutsu where he had to watch someone be interrogated.

It was better then the one he had, had to watch the day before. Where he'd been on a 'mission' to kill some person and had been forced to watch a girl only four years older then himself be raped and brutally killed. It had taken the whole time slotted for him to hide all of his emotions from that, and he was having nightmares about it as well.

But when someone had the motivator of pain or death to hide their emotions it was surprisingly easy to get the hang of. The boy wondered briefly what he would be like when he was done with all the training. But he pushed the thought away, he'd already been told what his dreams and goals were in life. He would follow them, because he'd been told to and these were the people he was supposed to listen to.

The boy swallowed the bile that was rising into his throat as he was led towards the small clearing that was literally covered in his blood. Six days of being tortured in here to enhance his ability to handle pain had already coated it in blood. At the moment though his torture master was not here.

Instead in the clearing stood a boy who looked to be about thirteen, he was looking around nervously and was dressed in slightly better armor then Naruto had on at the moment. And these clothes would more then likely fit him better then what he had now. These ones could be used as a blanket or something.

The other boy also had a pouch which supposedly held Kunai and shuriken and the boy grinned. They would make a nice addition to his single kunai. He was already proficient in throwing the weapon and could hit what he wanted. He'd been borrowing several kunai and been practicing his aim with throwing several, and it looked like he was about to get his own.

"You two will fight, and either you will kill your opponent or you will die. Begin." Naruto dashed forwards his fist connecting with the other boys face, but the other boy only screamed and lashed out. Hitting the blonde one with wild strikes as he tried to protect himself from death. Naruto frowned as he took hit after hit trying to get in through the boys wildly flailing arms.

He saw his opening and tackled the boy poising the kunai at his throat, but he hesitated again. He didn't really _want_ to kill the other boy. It was however a mistake to hesitate and the smaller boy began to writhe as his collar was activated. A minute later his head instructor had yanked him up by his hair screaming at him. Naruto couldn't really make out what he was saying, but he had the general idea.

A fist connected with the side of his head and the boy hit the ground hard, leaving a small impression. "I _said_ do you understand?" The boy forced himself to his feet and bowed as he spoke, "Yes, Akihiko-Sama." The boy didn't rise from his bowed position until the man acknowledged what he'd said. He'd made that mistake once already and he'd had all the bones in his left hand broken.

He wasn't making that mistake again. Grabbing the kunai he'd dropped he advanced on his opponent drawing his hand back he snarled slightly. If anyone had been listening closely they would have heard the 'sorry' under the noise. But many weren't so as the boy's kunai sliced through his opponents neck smirks went around on the faces of the observers.

Naruto didn't know it but many of the shinobi council had come to watch the boy's second killing to see how he had progressed after a week of his training. It was obvious that while initially hesitant he was at least relatively easy to persuade. Once his main instructor confirmed his prey dead the boy was told to strip the body.

For the rest of the thirty minuets he was instructed on how to properly dispose of a corpse. The rest of the boy's day went as usual; only at weapons training they started to show him how to use the shuriken. The boy thought about his fight and wondered what would have happened had he chosen not to hesitate.

He wished he hadn't hesitated, but now he resolved himself to never do so again. It was unbecoming of what he was to be. Well he knew he was supposed to be a demon and since the thing in him was a real demon maybe at night he would ask it for help. He knew what the gift was that the demon had given him.

The thing had forced his body to develop the ability to use chakra earlier on, and had increased his available chakra capacity. He'd also elongated the boys canine's all four of them. And made the other teeth slightly more pointer. Other then that he was the same as always.

The boy turned sniffing the air and looking around; he could see the indention marks on the ground that told of someone passing through here. He'd become the demon everyone said he was, if only because that's what they wanted. Right? After all if they didn't want it why would they call him it so often?

† † † † †

**Author's Notes:** Meh not sure what to say this time, I only really have one thing: I hope to accomplish this story by showing Naruto's had a steady progression. Not some kind of sudden burst of power where he's god like and antagonizes everyone. He **will not **be a Garra and YES Garra will be the same as he always is. So will everyone else, well with mild character personality changes since Goofy, bubbly, dumb Naruto can not influence them.

**Next Chapter:** The First Mission


	4. Chapter 3: First Mission

** The Lesser Evil**

**Authors Note: **Well sorry about that wait, but the length should make you happy. I had to re-write it twice to make sure I got rid of his emotions correctly. First time there were too many, and second time he was just a robot, neither felt right. Anyways, hope you all like and I'll start on Chapter 4 ASAP!

**Chapter 3: The First Mission**

A small boy awoke, blue eyes shining through the darkness that surrounded him. He sat up quickly, looking about the room, assessing it for any threats. Once he deemed himself safe the boy relaxed minutely. It was barely noticeable, but the slight hunch of his shoulders and the _almost_ look of relief in his face gave it away.

He didn't move for the moment, though he knew that he probably should. A frown adorned his face as he reflected for a brief moment. He started to do the math in his head, from the first day he had started his… training, to now. Ebisu-Sama, his Knowledge instructor, had told him that there were three hundred and sixty five days in a year, fifty weeks, and twelve months.

So that meant that he had been doing this for two years. Or in other words, as he had learned to count it, one hundred and four kills. One kill a week, every week, no matter what. The boy frowned wondering if he was six now, or if he was close to it. The boy shucked his thoughts as he heard footsteps approaching his room.

Moving from the bed he dressed quickly hand gripping the handle of his Tanto. The Tanto was commonly referred to as a 'Tiger Tanto'. Its full length was thirteen and a half inches, though the actual blade was only eight inches. The boy felt more comfortable with the dagger like weapon then the wakizashi he had strapped on his back.

He only stood about four foot, give or take a centimeter, but the wakizashi was twenty six and a half inches long with a blade length of nineteen and a half inches. He still felt extremely uncomfortable using the weapon despite the training he'd been going through. After all, when your damned weapon is just over half your height it makes it awkward to move around, even if it was extremely light.

The boy tensed suddenly but refrained from drawing the blade, and was happy he did. For the person who opened the door was none other then his usual ANBU escort that arrived every morning. He was required to have lightning fast reflexes, which meant if he drew his blade on the wrong person he was in for some pain. And if he didn't draw it fast enough he was dead.

The boy bowed to his escort before speaking, his hand never leaving the hilt of his dagger. "Good morning, ANBU-Sama. A pleasure as always." The man, the boy _knew_ he was a man. All of his anatomy lessons told him this, merely nodded roughly before speaking in his usual terse sentences.

"Yea, yea I know. Now get moving, the Hokage wants to see you so you won't be getting anything from Ebisu today." The boy merely nodded politely, before stepping into the light. He had, up until that point been hiding in the shadows, and since it was the start of a new week, the boy had some new additions to his clothing.

The ANBU looked the boy over carefully taking in his slightly new appearance. The boy's four foot form, well more like three foot eleven, was clad in black shinobi sandals, with a pair of tight, almost _too_ tight, looking pair of black pants that were taped at his ankles. Covering every inch of skin to that point.

For a shirt he had another tight, almost ridiculously so, item. The tank top clung to the boys form showing the muscles that had already started to form and the boy's lack of fat. It covered his shoulders completely, though under the shirt he wore a wire mesh shirt that had sleeves that went down to about an inch away from his elbows.

On the boy's hands was a pair of fingerless gloves, leaving his mildly scarred arms and fingers in full view. Over the lower half of his face (covering everything from his nose down) he wore a mask that connected smoothly with his shirt. His hair was in complete disarray, but the once golden blonde locks had long since started to take on a reddish tint. The man grinned behind his own mask as he looked at the boys two most visible weapons; the kunai's and Shurikens were placed into two identical pouches that were on each thigh.

The man shook his head slightly before starting off; it never really ceased to amaze him at how calmly the boy could take to being watched. But then again when you're stuck in his situation for two year you generally tend to take everything calmly.

At five fifteen sharp the boy finished his breakfast and stood up, bowing to the ANBU operative again. "I am prepared to leave whenever you are, ANBU-Sama." The man nodded and started off, the boy's footsteps sounded in sync with his own. Though admittedly the boy was walking several paces behind him and to the side, it was apparently a sign of respect.

"We will be moving fast, so keep up." The operative's voice was harsh and rough as it came out, he didn't bother to spare the boy a glance as they stepped into the elevator. "Hai, ANBU-Sama." The voice of his charge was as always respectfully quiet, and distant.

Ten minuets later and the boy walked out into the first _real_ sunlight he had felt for two years. He was greeted with the sight of a dense covering of woods that hid pretty much everything from view. As he was taking this in the operative had already started to move and the boy took off after him. Struggling to keep up with the grueling pace that was set.

Fifteen minuets later the two landed on top of the wall that surrounded Konohagakure No Sato _(1)_. The boy looked over the village that he had not seen in two years, and felt nothing. No resentment, or loathing, or even a need for revenge. No pity, no sadness, and certainly no gratitude. No love, or hate, or _anything_.

He just looked, for he knew this was the village that he was being trained to fight for. Ebisu-Sama had mentioned it many times that the boy's job was to become like the Tanto he wielded so perfectly. He was to become a weapon, a tool or instrument in which to harm others when need be and protect his wielder(s). He did not sigh, for he knew that this was his purpose in life. This was why he _lived_, why he even bothered to wake up in the mornings or get back up from one of the harsh beatings.

It was his purpose. That's all he needed to know, and just as well that he would feel no emotion for it. The ANBU operative motioned slightly and started off over the tree tops, a tall six year old following close behind. Moments later they were entering the Hokage's person tower and the boy felt the enormity of the power that had been in here.

This was where his wielder was, and he only hoped that Hokage-Sama found him to be a sharp enough weapon. The two stopped in front of a large oaken door, the ANBU knocking loudly. It took about a minute but finally a deep baritone of a voice, that held massive undertones of power and wisdom spoke.

"Enter." The boy felt Goosebumps dance across his arms as he heard the voice. That was the sound of his Master's voice, and it was even better then he had imagined. As the operative opened the door, the boy steeled himself as images of what he _thought_ his master would look like danced through his mind.

The shinobi walked in bowing deeply before stepping to the side and showing the six year old boy that had been called. The boy took three steps, entering the room fully and taking in his surroundings. He felt a slight pang of disappointment as he saw the face of his wielder for what he thought, was the first time. The man was old, plain and simple.

While the boy couldn't see how something as old and decrepit looking as _that_ could be his wielder, he could _feel_ the power that the man radiated. The boy, quickly, concluded that age must make you much stronger then he had originally though. That or his wielder was a one of a kind shinobi whose age could not affect his abilities.

He was unsure of the answer, to his question, but he pushed them out of his mind bowing deeply, more so then the man before him. The boy spoke, his voice was quiet, but easily hear and understood. It also carried across all the reverence and respect that the boy could muster. "Hokage-Sama, you have called and I have come." The Sandaime Hokage watched his predecessor/successor's son walk into his room and act like the perfect… weapon.

The old man just nodded, not being able to hold back all of the sadness he felt at such a man's son being reduced to this. He did, however, refrain from addressing the boy with too much compassion. He looked to the other people sitting in the room, and almost glared at them.

"Naruto, you have been called here for a very important reason." The boy nodded his assent to this knowledge. He was standing at a rigid form of attention waiting for whatever orders he was to be given. "These people are the clan heads of all the major clans our village posses'. They are also the Shinobi Council, the ones who ultimately decided your fate."

The boy merely nodded respectfully again, never taking his eyes from the spot they had landed on. No one was surprised by the boy's reaction; he had been trained to be impassive after all. But the Hokage was saddened, he'd wanted to at least see surprise, or hopefully even anger at that announcement. Pushing that thought out of his head he looked at the men seated before him.

The Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Uchiha, Yamanaka, Akimichi, and the Aburame, he himself was there as the Sarutobi clan head and the Hokage. He allowed a small frown to grace his features again. "We have been receiving bi monthly reports on your progress, and this will be the next one. However we are looking to allow you to do missions, if you have progressed far enough." The boy showed a small amount of surprise at the new words, but quickly schooled his features into nothingness again.

Merely inclining his head respectfully, in hope that they would continue. The Hokage, understanding the boy's gesture looked at the ANBU member in the room. All eyes, except for the boys, seemed to rest on him now. The man wanted to grumble in irritation at all the attention but resisted the urge. Instead he snapped to a less rigid form of attention.

"We would like to hear the report now, ANBU-San." The operative didn't bother with the boy's ridiculously respectful gestures instead he started in on his report. "Of course, Hokage-Sama. Naruto is High Chuunin level in the areas of Stamina and Academics, he is chuunin level in the areas of Kenjutsu and general weapons, he is low chuunin level in the areas of stealth and taijutsu, he is high genin level in the areas of ninjutsu and assassination, he is genin level in the areas of battle experience, interrogation, and chakra control, he is low genin level in the areas of tracking and Genjutsu, and finally he is at the level of an Academy student with his knowledge of medicine."

Silence seemed to reign supreme as the council members and the Hokage took in the knowledge. To know that almost _half_ of all the boy's abilities were at least chuunin level had finally done the impossible and silenced them. It was not unknown for a child to be so powerful at six, examples like Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi easily came to mind when powerful children were thought of.

But they were still few and far between. The Hokage finally broke the silence, looking the ANBU operative strait through the eye holes. "And what level is the boy currently placed at?" The operative seemed to think quietly while the boy seethed at the thoughts on his abilities. He had thought he was a much better tool then that, but apparently this was not to be the case.

He frowned behind his mask wondering how he could become of much better help. The shinobi ranks in his mind were simple and there were standards he had set. The Academy Student, the Genin, the Chuunin, the Tokubetsu Jounin, the Jounin, the 'Special Jounin'_ (2)_, the ANBU, the ANBU Captain, and the Kage. It… irritated him to no end that after two years he wasn't at least a Jounin level in the majority of his abilities.

His thoughts were, however, interrupted when the operative spoke again. "I would say either High genin level, or low Chuunin. He could swing it either way, but know this, Hokage-Sama. His last opponent that he killed was considered to be at least a C Ranked missing Nin." The council nodded at this, it meant that the boy was more then likely at least on par with a Chuunin.

The boy refrained from growling in his displeasure, making a promise to work twice as hard as he already was. He _needed_ to be the perfect weapon; his master could demand no less from his loyal servant. Naruto's attention wavered back into focus when the Hokage spoke, his tone that of authority and one who had made his decision. He spoke first to the operative, and then to the council and the weapon.

"Tell them to add a leadership course to Naruto's training, if he is going to be our weapon he had better know how to lead as well." The operative bowed to this command before straightening again, watching as the Hokage's hawkish profile looked over every council member, and then the weapon itself.

"I believe that it is _agreed_ the boy is strong enough to do missions." The council seemed to nod reluctantly in their agreement. When the Hokage decided something like this, in a less then formal council setting they had no choice but to surrender to his commands. "Hai, Hokage-Sama, it will increase his battle experience and leadership capabilities to do so."

Naruto noted that it was the Uchiha, who spoke in favor of this and made a mental note of it. It might prove more useful later on. His attention went back to the Hokage who, almost, smirked at his win. "With that decided, the council is dismissed. The boy will split his schedule from now on. One week on missions, one for his training."

Nods were his Master's only reply, but the boy could see resentment in some of their eyes. He made note of this also, he would not allow his master to be harmed by these miscreants. The boy moved aside as the council slid past him, he ignored some of their hate filled glares, his eyes were trained on his Master's face and he had no time for anyone else.

"ANBU-San, will you go and collect Inuzuka Tsume, Mitarashi Anko, and Morino Ibiki." The man nodded, giving a low bow before disappearing in a swirl of smoke. Naruto remained at his rigid form of attention, never wavering from watching his surroundings. Ten minuets later the door was flung open and a reddish-blonde haired six year old boy disappeared from his spot.

He had two reasons for doing so, the first if he had not moved the door would probably have knocked him over, and the second was that he believed no shinobi would ever knock down the Hokage's door like that. As such a threat. He appeared again in front of the woman arm partially extended, his wakizashi lightly touching the woman's throat.

The Hokage had not reacted fast enough for moments later the boy found himself in an even more precarious position. A kunai at his throat, his head was being held back in a forceful grip by _something_, and another Kunai placed directly over his heart by some man. He could barely see the man out of his peripherals, but he was there.

The boy frowned, looking 'up' to see a splash of brown hair and slitted eyes looking back at him. The woman, he decided, looked like an animal. His eyes looked over taking in the appearance of the man, he was easily distinguishable. What with his scars and bear like figure after all. Then his eyes looked forwards at the woman in front of him, she was the weirdest of all.

Her outfit did not protect her well, he decided that quickly, and her crazy purple hair and grin matched each other perfectly. Overall, he finally decided, he was screwed and had probably jumped to conclusions despite his training. He should never have drawn his blade when he saw the Hitae-ates and sensed no malicious intent. But he was in a hair thin trigger, what with being around his master.

That was when the Hokage spoke, his voice gruff with irritation. "Tsume-San, Ibiki-San let the boy go. He just though Anko was a threat, what with the way she busted in and Naruto lower your weapon, they are not a threat." The boy didn't nod his head as usual, for if he had, he might have slit his own throat. As soon as his blade was lowered the kunai were removed from his body.

In as quick and graceful a motion as possible the boy sheathed his longer weapon and spun on his heel to face the Hokage. He bowed, low, almost to the point where his head touched his knees. "My apologies, Hokage-Sama. My instructors would be very displeased with my ridiculous assumptions; I will make up this fault." The Hokage just nodded, as the boy didn't seem to want to rise until he was acknowledged.

Once that was so he stood back as strait as possible, looking even more like a Zanbatou had been shoved up his ass. He did not miss the weird looks that the Jounin's were giving him, he just chose to ignore them. "Naruto, if you'll step outside, I need to speak to them for a moment. One of them will show you back in when you are needed." The Hokage, having not intended to explain everything to the three shinobi so soon, decided that they would probably get no where without doing so now.

And the boy couldn't hear all this information just yet or else he'd be in trouble, he knew that Tsume already knew. She had been there the night of the boy's fate; though she had conviently skipped out of today's meeting and sent someone else in. She would regret that now, he could tell. The boy bowed, low, again before responding. "As you will it, Hokage-Sama."

The boy stepped from the room seeing the chairs he moved over towards them, but did not sit. Instead he stood, about a foot away from one of the walls next to the chairs at a slightly more relaxed form of attention then he had been in before. He couldn't hear what was being said in the office, but his curiosity was certainly peaked when he heard a sudden shout.

It was too bad he couldn't make out all the words correctly, or he would have learned a great deal more. Ten minuets passed, from the time he had taken his position near the wall to when the door opened again. The purple haired woman from before stuck her head out looking around until she saw him standing there.

"Yo, Gaki! Get your ass back in here." The boy gave no sign of his irritation at the woman's words, other then the invisible frown that creased his hidden lips. Moments later he was back in the room staring at his master again. But before he could boy and say anything again the Hokage rushed forwards.

"I'm sending you four on an A Ranked mission; it's a tracking/retrieval mission. However to retrieve the required item you will more then likely have to kill the wielder. Tsume here will be in charge. Anko, Ibiki the two of you are to interrogate anyone who knows the whereabouts of the item, teach Naruto as well." Nods of assent were given at the Hokage's words and his piercing gaze moved towards the mission's leader.

"Tsume, you are obviously the tracker and leader of the group. I want you to teach Naruto your positions as well." She grimaced slightly but nodded as well, no where near as respectfully as her two subordinates. "Naruto, your job is to learn from your superiors and, if needed engage the target in a Kenjutsu duel. Your skill should far surpass that of your opponents, however he is ranked as a Jounin so be careful." The boy, unlike the others, bowed before speaking.

"As you command, Lord Hokage." The old man grimaced at the boy's words and tone but he shrugged it off. "Tsume, here is your mission scroll. I'd like you to leave by three if possible. Plus take Naruto with you until then, it would be pointless for him to return to his training center." The woman nodded, looking even more irritated at the prospect of dragging the boy around with her.

"You are dismissed." This time even his three other teammates bowed before leaving. No one spoke until they had exited the building. It was at this time that Tsume rounded on all of them. "All right, we're going after that bastard Rain shinobi Aoi, who stole the Niidaime's sword. It shouldn't be a mission longer then weeks so, goes and get packed for that."

They nodded, their assent, Naruto said nothing however. He had everything he owned (well pretty much) on his person at the moment. And with six months of hunting different animals as his stealth, tracking, and assassination training he could catch his own food. "Boy, go with Ibiki. The Hokage gave him some cash to get you some long term supplies."

Naruto nodded in response, knowing he was being fobbed off onto the older man, but not knowing the reasons why. Ibiki looked at the kid, and almost, sighed in exasperation. All three could easily note the boy's complete lack of a headband, and would probably have been asking him questions if it had not already been unsatisfactorily explained to them by the Hokage. Oh and also they'd been order _not_ to ask about it either.

† † † † †

Ibiki looked down at the quiet boy who was following him, and frowned. The boy was apparently a weapon, or in training to become a weapon. He was only six, though he had started his training two years ago. The young interrogator frowned as he recalled a night just over two years ago.

A boy had been attacked and, rumor said, killed. He had heard the description of the boy that had been 'killed', though that wasn't really helping here. The boy with him covered up most of his face, so there was no way for him to compare the description he had. The only thing he could do was confirm that, yes, the blue eyes were the same, and the hair though different at least held a similar color.

He frowned again, but the boy noticed this and lifted his head slightly to look at his newest escort. "A problem, Ibiki-Sama?" The man's frown deepened at the boy's respectful tone, but he gripped his emotions and put them away. He definitely did not agree with turning these children into weapons.

There were many examples of why they shouldn't but the two that stuck out the most would be Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi. Kakashi was now chronically late to everything except a serious meeting, and he read _porn_ all the time in public and not. He made no serious emotional attachments, and was more like a walking husk of a human then an actual human.

Itachi was not much better, though Ibiki was prepared to say he was much worse. That boy did mission, after mission, after mission. Nothing else. His only goals was apparently to become stronger, he _never_ showed emotions. He was chronically early for everything and so by the book, you'd think he'd written it.

Ibiki had the feeling that the boy next to him was exactly like that, but he did have to concede one point to the boy. Neither Itachi nor Kakashi had been experimented on. The boy had, his height was a prime example of that, as well as his ridiculous strength. The boy should probably be about four to six inches _shorter_ then he currently was, but because of the growth hormones that had been injected into him they were changing his body quickly.

Not to mention the 'bone' treatment. That had probably been ridiculously painful to go through, yet from what the Hokage had said, the boy went through it once every year. He frowned, the boy still seemed to have some emotions though and Ibiki hoped that they didn't get rid of them. Pushing those thoughts away he responded to the boy in his usual gruff voice.

"No." He turned into a shop leading his young charge in as well. They were in the leading shinobi shop in town, though only shinobi were allowed to enter let alone buy anything. It was why Ibiki was here; to make sure the boy got the items he needed. Moving around Ibiki grabbed five sets of ten kunai and shuriken, one set of fifteen exploding tags and smoke bombs. A bottle that held fifty soldier pills, another bottle that held twenty blood replenishing pills, a general shinobi backpack to carry the items in, and a months worth of rations.

Throwing all the items on the counter the proprietor looked up at Ibiki slightly surprised before his attention wavered to the boy with him and he frowned. "Ibiki you know I don't allow non-shinobi to enter here. He'll…" The man was cut off by Ibiki shoving a scroll in front of him. Opening it, the man just raised his eyebrows before shaking his head and unsealing the money.

The Hokage knew him too well.

The two teammates left the shop ten minuets later, one now wearing a backpack that held all his rations and survival gear. The weapons had been stored in various places on his person. He continued to follow Ibiki around as the shinobi collected his own supplies. Two hours and twenty two minuets from when Tsume had told them to get their gear ready they were standing in front of the gate, waiting patiently for the two females of the group to show.

Naruto had already started to classify his teammates abilities, he was sure that Tsume was more then likely ranked as a Jounin, but was probably at least ANBU level. He was prepared to say the same about Ibiki, though he bet Anko was only Jounin level and probably a Tokubetsu Jounin at that.

He pushed those thoughts from his head as he saw the approach of Tsume, he'd sensed Anko approaching from the left. When Tsume stopped in front of them the bow bowed by way of greeting, though said nothing else. Anko landed and as Tsume was about to round on her for not being here faster the younger woman grinned pointing to a clock nearby.

A low, human like growl was directed towards the snake mistress, though nothing else was said. "Fine. I'll take point, boy you'll be right behind me. Anko you're behind he kid and Ibiki you're watching our asses." Nods of assent were given before the older woman took off out the gate. Naruto followed a good three feet behind her.

He knew that this mission was partially meant for him to learn to track better, so he stayed closer then normal. Tsume didn't seem to mind; actually she didn't even acknowledge it. Anko kept a good ten feet between herself and the reddish-blonde boy in front of her, forcing Ibiki to be much farther back from the point shinobi then normal.

† † † † †

Two days into their mission they arrived at one of the smaller villages in rain. They'd moved constantly for the first day until they reached the borders, then camped out making sure to get the required rest while still being within their own lands. Once they had crossed, everyone had become a bit more alert.

Now that they were in a village the tension was a palpable thing, it was possible to cut it using a pencil.

Naruto frowned as he took in the lack of people. Tsume-Sama had told him to accompany Anko-Sama while she and Ibiki-Sama looked for clues. His and Anko-Sama's job was much the same, only they weren't aloud to engage the enemy until _after_ Tsume-Sama had been alerted.

Frowning the boy thought back to what their Taichou had told him about tracking, plus the information about how Inuzuka's tracked. He started to concentrate some chakra to his nose, until everything around him started to overload his senses. He figured since he didn't know what Aoi or the sword should smell like he would ask Anko-Sama to lead them to places with large concentrations of people.

It was a well known fact that Aoi had at least eleven people working for him, or three teams of four. The boy blinked, as the smell of sweat and human body odor reached his nose in massive amounts. He stopped the chakra concentration and looked at his partner, who seemed… bored. "Anko-Sama, there is a large concentration of people to the north-east. It would behoove us to check it out." Anko blinked at him for a moment before poking him in the forehead.

"Don't use such ridiculous words." He just nodded in assent, with no intention of following that 'request'. "Good, then let's go." The boy just followed his partner, an unseen frown adorned on his masked face. The two hopped several rooftops before landing on the one that would overlook the gathering of people.

The boy paled at what he saw below, but he made no move to do anything about it. For the mission always comes first and interfering with… this could compromise it. The woman next to him stiffened in anger and her hand shot to her side to grab a weapon but the boy's hand caught hers. He sent a withering glare towards the slave auction before turning his head to meet her eyes.

"We can not interfere, it will compromise us and Aoi will undoubtedly figure out that we are here and hide himself." The woman with purplish hair and light brown eyes glared at him coldly before shaking his hand off. Naruto merely nodded before an explosion interrupted what had previously been a relatively peaceful day. The boy glanced down at the slave auction and saw that the majority of people there weren't too concerned.

Some were even continuing on as though nothing had happened. The boy frowned, judging by that behavior, it meant that this type of thing probably happened often. He took out four kunai smirking as he wrapped explosive notes around the hilts. His teammate eyed him oddly as he finished up. "Hypocrite." He cocked his head to the side as he threw the shinobi knives down.

Until they made a square around the entire auction area. "Not at all, Anko-Sama. I've already checked and Tsume-Sama and Ibiki-Sama were in the general area of the explosion. As such, I believe that a distraction is in order." He paused wondering if he should make the next comment. It was more then needed to be said, and it would probably get him off the woman's shit list.

"If causing this distraction, also happens to interrupt a grotesque business such as this then it is no skin off my nose." He had guessed correctly, at least judging by the woman's feral, almost psychotic, grin. He nodded to her, raising one hand and channeling chakra into it. Seconds late the four kunai exploded, directed inwards towards the buyers and sellers of humans.

Severe injuries and death occurred among the buyers. Minor injuries occurred to the auctioneers and slaves. By that time the two who had caused such damage had already left heading towards where Tsume and Ibiki were. Landing without so much as a whisper of a noise the two teammates looked surprised at the charred ruins of no less then four buildings.

Naruto blinked before drawing his wakizashi and spinning around, Anko beat him to the punch though. His sword and her kunai were both held up stopping the blade called Raijin from touching either of them.

"Rokusho Aoi, you have two choices; Give us Niidaime-Sama's sword and die peacefully or fight us and die horridly." The man narrowed his eyes, but before he could give any answer a cry of 'Tsuuga' was heard. Naruto jumped back along with Anko as Tsume and her companion smashed into the ground where Aoi once stood. Before the boy could react though he was sent flying from a backhanded fist to the face.

Righting himself in the air he landed with a small thud skidding back several feet. "I'll take that as your answer then." Naruto shifted his footing slightly before allowing his knees to bend a bit. Glancing around he could see that the man had already used his umbrella full of Senbon needles, meaning there was no need to fear that attack. A

And now he was using Niidaime-Sama's sword. The boy frowned, knowing that his own weapon would _not_ be able to stand a long fight with that. Plus there was the knowledge that Aoi had been ranked as a Chuunin in Konoha and a Jounin in Ame. While he was only ranked as _maybe_ low chuunin level in Konoha. A frown adorned his face at these thoughts; he knew he could take the opponent in a straight Kenjutsu match _if_ they had evenly matched swords.

Like this, he knew that his chances of winning were slim to none. His only chance at all was to get the man with a surprise before he figured anything out about his skill level. Then again the man _had_ come from Konoha so he no doubt knew about Hatake-Sama's and Uchiha-Sama's skill levels at his age.

Naruto was relieved from his thoughts as the man charged at him, raising the yellow sword above his head for a strike. Naruto smirked, no form at all. Had he attacked like that his instructors would have had his head. Naruto moved his blade up, choosing to fight with just once hand on it. His other drew the Tanto on his side.

He grinned, the outline just barely showing behind his mask. As Aoi's weapon landed down on top of Naruto's the smaller boy just barely managed to stop his sword from coming back at him. He moved forwards allowing Raijin to be brought down until he was within stabbing range. Twisting he slide his blade out from under Raijin's and moved to stab Aoi in the side, only to catch a sharp kick to the head.

Naruto rolled once before coming up, though he didn't rush back in immediately. Anko and Ibiki had already assaulted the man, and it appeared Ibiki had something to settle with him. Moving around the edge of the fight the boy looked for an opening to rush in. Seeing it he dashed forwards catching Raijin's destructive blade on his own and allowing Anko and Ibiki to get their hits in.

Bringing his blade back down he rushed forwards again, using a Shunshin at the last moment to attack from the left. Aoi seemed better prepared then most for the attack since he managed to get Raijin around, but it also proved dangerous. Naruto swung his Tanto down cutting into the man's wrist.

Aiming to cut the damned thing off. He only got about a quarter of the way into it when he was kicked knocking him back along with his weapon. But it did skin off the entire top layer of the man's hand along with it. Naruto watched as he switched hands to wield the blade with his left a smirk crossing his face.

Aoi was done for. "I'd surrender and accept your death now, if not we could get lucky and get some _very_ valuable information on you." Aoi just glared raising the blade as Naruto charged back into the fight. However he'd gotten over confident and for that return as he moved to swing again he was caught by Raijin's electricity. He snarled as he was hurled back, rolling several times before striking a large rock and denting it.

He didn't get a chance to go back into the fight since his three other teammates had already leapt in together. Just because he was listed as a Jounin didn't mean he had the skills for one. And he _definitely_ didn't have the skills to take on those three Jounin. Naruto snarled as he forced himself back up with the help of his sword.

Ibiki picked the unconscious man up while Tsume pocketed Raijin in her weapons pouch. "Come on kid, we need to run before any Ame ninjas show up." Naruto nodded starting after them, but the electric shock he'd received was still messing with his system.

† † † † †

Four days later three shinobi of Konoha, one former shinobi of Konoha, a nindog, and a weapon came through the north east gates of Konohagakure no Sato. The male shinobi of Konoha was carrying a passed out ex-chuunin and staggered catching himself against the wall, while dumping his prisoner on the ground. Both females stood, but were breathing hard. The weapon looked like shit, well everyone looked like shit but he was taking the cake.

Several slashes throughout his clothing indicated many minor cuts. Dried blood was caked throughout his entire outfit, his reddish-blonde hair was caked in mud and blood, and his eyes sang of his exhaustion. He didn't bother to try and remain standing, or catch himself on the wall. Instead he went for the simple approach of falling flat on his face, muscles quivering in protest.

This was the site the chuunin guards were greeted with, and before they could react two ANBU teams appeared. One took the prisoner while the other helped the shinobi, directing them to the hospital. A separate figure, in an ANBU uniform and mask appeared next to the boy picking him up by the waste.

He turned to the boy's captain and spoke, "Inuzuka-Sama, how did the boy do?" The woman looked up from the ground, almost, glaring at the ANBU who held the boy so callously. "He did fine scarecrow. He damned near cut the bastards hand off. Gaki killed eight of our pursuers as well." The man, duly named scarecrow, nodded before disappearing in a swirl of leaves and a puff of smoke.

"Why did Inu-Sama take your teammate? He was in need of treatment." Anko looked at Tsume as though asking if she could answer it. The imperceptible shake of her head was the only answer the woman got. Shrugging Anko responded in her usual brash way, "Probably because the Gaki pissed him off before we left. Wouldn't put it past him?"

The ANBU looked at his charge for a moment, as though hoping she would say more. When nothing was forthcoming he just nodded and disappeared with the woman in tow.

† † † † †

**Author's Notes:** Uh allright for the 'numbers' I had in the story they were put their so that I could explain what they meant in case someone didn't know.

1 - Konohagakure no Sato means Village Hidden in the Leaves

2 - 'Special Jounin' - Okay to explain this I have to give a bit more detail. We all know the Genin and then Chuunin, well as I've read (and now believe) the next rank up from Chuunin is Tokubetsu Jounin, which is lower then Jounin. However Kakashi is ranked as a special jounin so I figured that after teh rank of 'full' jounin, that Special Jounin would come in as someone who had served as an ANBU Captain or just had a crack load of crazy skills. Also ANBU out ranks Jounin's.

3 - Ame - Or 'Rain' - I know this isn't numbered, its cause I forgot

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I don't mind answering. Also I intend to have Naruto become a shinobi however I'm undecided as to when I should do this. I believe that all of the Shinobi clans would fight his becomming a shinobi until their heirs graduated, but I'm thinking that I might just have Naruto graduate at the same time and mix the teams up a bit. This does not mean that he's going to 'regain his humanity' or anything.

It just means that he will become a shinobi, finally, and probably scare the shit out of his team. My question to all of you, however is who his Jounin instructor and teammates should be. If no one has any suggestions I'll just pull from a hat, one teammate MUST be female though.

Until the next update - Peace.


	5. Chapter 4: Worthless Information

The Lesser Evil

**The Lesser Evil**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything having to do with Naruto.

**Authors Notes: **Okay so thanks to my one reviewer about what team Naruto should be on. In truth I like the challenge of putting him with Kurenai instead of Kakashi, though you should know that I'm not at all concerned with Naruto getting back any lost Humanity. Secondly I'd like to address Naruto's slow progress since Chapter 3, even though it has been six some odd months.

He's doing missions which cuts into training time. And he is only doing B-S ranked missions so unlike when Team 7 went to Wave he doesn't have the luxury of training on a Mission. Secondly I'd like to point out that when Kakashi actually got mildly serious (Oxymoron Neh?) about Naruto's training he improved by leaps and bounds.

So just know that Next chapter will be the Time Skip to Naruto becoming a Genin (FINALLY) and that he _will_ be Jounin level. I held myself back in making him stronger then that, but he's been training for eight years so I think Jounin level is good, especially considering the Mission Statistics he'll rack up in that time.

**Quick Rant that will have Spoilers:** Is it me or does Sasuke just SUCK without Orochimaru Curse seal. I mean hot damn that Kumo Jinchuuraki is beating the shit out of him and _I love it!_ And freaking Karin HOW EFFIN CREEPY IS THAT CRAP? Gash I swear I shivered when I first read that episode. All those effin bite marks, freaking nasty. But I must admit Sasuke absolutely SUCKS without his curse seal and it's noticeable, almost dying twice in the same fight in fewer than ten minuets. Sheesh. Final thing; I would really like to see Naruto turn into a Frog, That would be funny.

Now on with the story, and a quick apology for the long wait (I accidentally deleted the REAL first half)

**Chapter 4: Worthless Information**

The sound of snapping bone echoed down the hallway, and the men that were being led towards that sound flinched. The area smelled of antiseptic, ridiculously clean and felt uncomfortable. Muffled shouts could be heard coming from different wings of the place, but none from where they were headed.

The group, spearheaded by an old man, pushed open the doors walking into a room that held a sight many had not expected.

A large metal slab was in the center of the room, and strapped to it was a young reddish-blonde haired blue eyed weapon dressed in nothing. Scars marred the young boy's body, but that was not what drew many of the eyes. It was the broken limbs that were attached to the boy's body.

Both arms and legs had been snapped, and realization dawned on the group that the earlier sound had come from here. Three of the five doctors spun around in surprise to face the group while two others finished hooking up several needled into the boy before focusing their attention.

"Ahh, Hokage-Sama a pleasure as always to welcome you here." Indefinable rage flitted through the old man's face as he looked at the, almost bored looking boy strapped to the table. Several in the group looked sickly around trying to find a place to relieve their stomachs.

"Did you not read the memo that was left for you? The boy has missions now and _this_ treatment is to stop. He can not perform to acceptable limits when you're breaking his bones." The Hokage's voice was a steel vice, and several of the group took steps back. An ANBU member stepped forwards motioning to the boy before speaking.

"Do you want us to unhook him?" The Hokage's sharp nod drew minute glares from the doctors, but they were dispersed with quickly when they heard the menacing growling coming from behind them. The boy that had been so… kindly… donated to them to experiment on never complained or really even spoke when he was in their care.

But they had seen two months ago what could set him off, and that was an insult about the Hokage or showing anything less then complete respect. Several of the doctors had quit after seeing the boy kill the offender in such a brutal way. They did, however, understand that they were partly to blame for the boy's aggressive and animalistic nature. They were the one injecting him with stuff after all.

After the ANBU had unhooked their experiment they were led from the room, barely watching as the boy started to dress himself. Naruto focused all his attention on the man that was his wielder. Once fully dressed he bowed, low, before speaking in his same respectfully quiet and distant tone. "Hokage-Sama, a pleasure as always to be at your service, to what do I owe the honor of your appearance?"

The old man sighed audibly at the boy's odd behavior. "We need to send you on a mission for tomorrow Naruto. I know this week was scheduled for training but you are the only appropriate one to send. I'll debrief you tomorrow for the mission." The boy just nodded, but he knew there was something more to be said.

After all the Hokage had an entourage, so there people probably wanted something from him and the Hokage was acquiescing. "For now however, we will give you an hour to heal up as much as possible before we test you." The boy's eyes widened in sudden understanding before he bowed, just as deeply as before. "As you command Hokage-Sama."

The old man merely nodded before motioning for one of the ANBU teams to escort him out. He had some negotiations to do with this group before the test started.

† † † † †

Naruto stood quietly, his wakizashi extended out, the tip resting in the dirt. Blood ran down the swords length, pooling and making the dirt clump together, the boy's face remained impassive as he watched his newest opponent approach him with wary eyes.

This fight had been him again six other people. Only one remained. And for the moment the tired boy was willing to watch his opponent, and play the defensive. His body ached since he hadn't been given nearly long enough to fully heal from the broken bones and other tests.

Add into it that this fight had been specifically made to make him show almost every skill he had was only weighing on him more and more.

Plus the Hokage was watching, he could not appear even minutely less then perfect now. Raising the blade the boy frowned at its weight, if only he could take off these weights, he would have been done with this fight by now. Drawing himself into a more offensive stance the boy sneered, attempting to piss his opponent off.

It didn't work… Fully.

His sneer did insight the end of the fight however, as his opponent moved forwards. The boy ducked under the others fist and spun, bringing his blade around only to have his momentum stopped by the others kunai blade. He disengaged the blades coming around with another slice only to be intercepted again.

This fight was much better then the one he had, had with Rokusho Aoi just over six months ago. This kid was not a Kenjutsu master but he was good using his Kunai like Tanto's and fighting someone with a blade.

Naruto ignored the feint his opponent made and raised his leg catching the other in the chest and sending him backwards. Using his other leg he went after the bigger fighter his weapon raised into an overhead slash. Blades clanked together, but the boy had been prepared and he drew his Tanto at the last minute catching the others Kunai on it.

Using the greater length of his wakizashi he slipped it between the others ribs until he was pinned to the ground. He took a step back looked down at the pain filled face of his opponent. An opponent who was currently trying to pull the offending blade out of his side. The boy turned eyes focusing on the Hokage; he bowed slightly before raising his eyebrows in an unspoken question.

A moment later medics came rushing onto the field and the boy pulled his weapon from the other with some problems. He turned and started to walk away, cleaning his blade at the same time. He was not surprised that his Hokage had agreed to spare the other boy's life. It had been expected, and would more then likely give the Hokage and even better negotiating position.

For now, he had some training to finish with ensuring he was not stiff for tomorrow.

† † † † †

It was six o'clock in the morning and one Uzuki Yuugao was _not_ pleased to be where she was at the moment. Which just so happened to be moving out of the gates of Konoha at two fourths of her top speed with some overgrown six and a half year old.

The Hokage had given her a brief run down on the boy including his mission history. He had apparently only started missions six months ago, where in his first mission, and A Rank one at that, he had distinguished himself by damned near removing Aoi's hand and helping bring back the Niidaime's sword.

Since then apparently the boy went on missions bi-weekly, or like now, as needed.

This mission had been classified as a B Ranked one since the guaranteed information at the end was still a bit in question. The person offering it to them had requested the same payment for every mission and now that Yuugao was being assighned to one of them she was _not_ pleased at all.

Plus the fact that she should have been off duty at the moment, having just finished a night of patrol.

But such as the life of an ANBU and while she may have still been adjusting she understood why she had to do this mission and not someone else. But still… the fact that the payment for this mission included _this_ was simply barbaric to her. But she had been told that if the information turned out to be worthless or faulty she and the brat could kill the informants.

† † † † †

Two days later found a Four foot two inch, blondish-red haired, blue eyed six year and a purple haired, five foot six, blackish eyed sixteen year old woman stood in front of a small slightly run down house. The boy was dressed in a white tank top with a wire mesh shirt underneath that was about an inch from his elbows. He wore black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back.

He wore black shinobi sandals and a pair of black shinobi shorts with one leg wrapped in white wrappings and the other clear. He wore no headband but on the back of his shirt was the same red spiral that adorned every Konoha Chuunins and Jounin's vest. The woman wore standard ANBU gear without a mask and a Katana attached to her back.

The boy had a Wakizashi on his back and a Tanto on his right and left hips. The woman stepped up to the house's door and knocked loudly, a part of her hoping no one would answer. It was three minuets later when the door cracked open, the owner inspecting the woman on his door step.

"The bird fly's east only in the winter." The man behind the door nodded before opening it fully. A slight grin spread across his face as he beckoned the woman in, and his grin only seemed to double when his eyes landed on her companion.

"You know the agreements for this job?" The man's voice seemed to grate on the two's nerves, but nods were given from the two, without hesitation. "Good, we each get a turn with you both and then you get the information." Naruto frowned as he turned his head looking up at the man before speaking. "We know the mission parameters, as should you and your partner. There is no need to speak them."

The man froze in his tracks to glare down at the boy but just nodded. "You may leave your gear in this room. My partner and I are in the next two rooms over. You two may choose where you go first, doesn't matter to us." Naruto nodded again as he stepped inside the room and started to pull his weapons off his body. He propped the sword against the wall where he could draw it quickly in case something happened.

Yuugao followed his example and it took less then five minuets for the two to strip completely. Naruto felt weird being on a mission and yet being naked at the same time. He shrugged the feeling off as his being uneasy about being unarmed for so long. "Left or right Yuugao-Sama?" She frowned slightly at the boy wondering how he was taking this so calmly.

"I'll take the right first." The boy just nodded exiting the room and going left. A moment later he found himself standing in front of an equally naked man. The man eyed his new toy up and down before a smirk spread across his face.

† † † † †

Three hours later Naruto sat glaring at the scroll that contained their information. Yuugao stood next to him looking even more pissed off then her younger teammate. "This was wasteful." Naruto's voice hid his seething anger but his glare didn't contain it all. Yuugao nodded looking at the blood spattered room and having one of those ridiculous flashbacks.

The two had been switching rooms, after an hour of 'fun' with their clients. She'd been mildly surprised and greatly angered at her young teammate's bloody state but he seemed not to care. It was when they were halfway through filling their second part of the mission that she heard a sudden scream and crash.

She'd moved instantly still managing to catch the bastard who had been toiling between her legs by surprise and had knocked him out. Tying her new prisoner up she moved dragging him behind her until she made it to the next room and promptly threw up. She was surprised to see her teammate standing in the middle of the bloody mess holding a scroll up and looking pissed.

A kunai had been sticking out of his back and he was muttering something about 'fucking bastards'. She threw her prisoner into the proverbial lion's den and watched as her shorter teammate caught the man before hurling him against a wall and growling. That was when he'd thrown her the scroll and proceeded to torture their new prisoner.

Bringing them to this point in time. Both were still stark naked, though Naruto was covered in blood and bits of flesh. The second man, who was now dead, had told them everything they wanted to know. This included the fact that an Ambush had been set up for the two on their way back to Konohagakure.

Apparently the Tsuchikage still had something against Konoha and had found a way to hit them while not causing a major war. Naruto was snarling as he moved room wiping the blood off himself and changing at the same time. And this was _just_ supposed to be a B rank mission. Of course it wasn't anymore.

One last snarl of anger and he pulled his emotions back in backed while strapping his sword to his back. Turning towards Yuugao he spoke, his voice suddenly devoid of emotions. "You ready?" She just nodded and the two set off pretending like they were just disgusted with their mission and didn't suspect a thing.

An ambush for an ambush. Half an hour later they finally sprung the trap, which was set off by a wave of kunai and shuriken coming at them.

The two reacted with ingrained reflexes and cleared a path around their bodies with their weapons. Moment's later thirteen earth shinobi now stood in front of the duo, all in foreign fighting stances. "Huh, not even a nick. You two are good; this will make the kill all that much sweeter." Naruto smirked placed himself in the most offensive stance he knew and pointing the blade at the one who'd spoken.

"You'll go first." A moment later blood was gushing on the talkative man's teammates and they turned in surprise to see two more reddish-blonde warriors standing behind them. Swords soaked with their teammates blood, but they didn't last long as they both exploded with the force of ten Exploding tags each, knocking the earth shinobi out of their current positions.

With the first pre-fight kill Naruto went after six and Yuugao took the other six. Both looking to the end the fight as quickly, knowing they were no match in a drawn out one. Two more clones now flanked the young fighter as he set into his opponents in a whirl of his blade.

A Tanto in one hand and his Wakizashi in the other, it made for some interesting blood spatters when the fight was over. But for the moment Naruto found his Wakizashi shoved through one of the opponent's chest while he struggled to remove it in time to block another hit.

He didn't make it. Instead he found his hand being roughly torn from the hilt of his blade and his body going flying from the bruising punch he had just received. Rolling into a tree his momentum slowed enough for him to push back up and slide only a few more feet. Drawing his other Tanto he set into the fight again making more clones to assist him.

Three hits later and he was laying in a heap with six dead bodies surrounding him and about a hundred copies of himself as well. All of his hits had caused some kind of major damage. The first had broken his jaw and cheekbone as well as severely damaging his side. That was already healing.

The second and third hits had broken all the ribs on his left side and his right arm, that one was taking a bit more to heal. And the third hit had broken his chest bones, causing one to puncture his lung. The lung puncture had already been partially fixed since it was lethal, but his breathing was still shallow and painful.

Yuugao's shadow fell over him and he frowned, she looked tired from her fight but didn't seem to have taken too much damage. Barely a fraction of what he had suffered. He understood that she was ANBU level, but still he was _the_ weapon why couldn't he keep up with her. These thoughts flashed through his mind as the woman helped him up. "Guess we're both having a bad couple of day, eh?" He just nodded slightly in assent wondering what she meant.

† † † † †

It had been just over two weeks since his mission with Yuugao and he found himself standing in the Hokage's office, but this time with two new people and one acquaintance.

Shiranui Genma was a person he had never met. Apparently the man was twenty three years old and a Special Jounin who was looking into becoming a member of the ANBU force. From what the youngest of the group had figured this mission was part of his trials.

Uchiha Itachi was eleven years old and an ANBU Captain, part of the reason he was along was to see how Genma did during the mission. The other, because his skills might be required. He was the second youngest member of the group, and didn't seem to have any reaction at all. Naruto knew him because the other boy had served as his ANBU escort quite often.

Inuzuka Hana was twelve years old and had been a Genin for about a year. She was slated to take the Chuunin exams in two months, but for now she was being pulled from her team to help on this mission. She was Tsume's heir and would be partially crucial to the completion of this mission.

The Hokage looked at the oddly assembled group and had to fight back the chuckle that wanted out. Genma was stuck on a mission with two preteens and a child. By all accounts he should probably feel slighted to have this as his ANBU acceptance mission, but other then Hana everyone on the team was well above Genin level.

"All right this is an A Ranked mission. You four will be going to Tsuchigakure on a peaceful mission. With the Chuunin an exam coming up it is required that we are on good conditions with the Tsuchikage and he is having a Tournament for Genin in two weeks." The four people nodded their heads; it was common knowledge after all.

"The rules of the tournament are set in stone. It must be two genin working together to beat others and the genin must be from different teams. So we've decided that for this mission, you Naruto will pretend to be a Genin of Konoha and team yourself with Hana. Itachi you will be Naruto's 'instructor' and Genma will be Hana's."

A chorus of acceptance rung out from the team, and Naruto wondering if this meant he would get a headband to wear. His question was answered moments later when the Hokage moved to one of his desk doors. "Since it is required that all shinobi wear a headband to prove their position, Naruto you will be leant this Hitae-ate until you get back."

The boy nodded accepting the new prop to his costume with a bow. He tied it sideways on his head, so that the black cloth covered part of his forehead and the metal plating covered part of his hair, about two inches above the ear. "You leave in three hours to ensure you are checked in, in time."

† † † † †

The time waiting for the tournament day had been filled with training. Naruto and Hana had worked mercilessly to come up with some good teamwork skills. It was harder on Naruto since he was used to training alone and not with four other entities. Hana and her Haimaru triplets were however perfect at teamwork and it all really come down to Naruto reading situations correctly.

Neither of the two was privy to what their two ANBU teammates were really here for but Naruto figured it had a lot to do with information gathering. He also knew that was the reason he had been sent, well not to gather information but to spread bad information. He was here to make the other villages think that everyone in Konoha was as strong as him at his age now.

Not true, but perception was always an important thing. Now however Naruto sat next to his four partners dozing slightly. He was doing a kind of countdown and trying to figure out how long they had to wait for this dumb thing to get started. It was only about a ten minute or so longer waits when the Tsuchikage, flanked by four ANBU and two Jounin's, entered the area.

All the Genin, except Naruto and Hana, had stood up immediately. Hana, because she didn't want to and Naruto because he had been ordered to not show this man any special respect. He had been told to treat him as someone of the same rank, of which Naruto was sure he wasn't anywhere near this guy's abilities, but whatever an order was an order.

Naruto cracked open an eye when he felt the Tsuchikage's presence in front of him and Hana's positions. "Do you have a problem with respect Konoha shinobi?" Naruto yawned as he watched Hana snap up to her feet, but a sloppy form of attention. Her dogs remained sitting, but looked mildly fearful about what was going on around them.

Naruto lifted his hand and started to clean out his ear with his pinky before talking, in a slow drawl, as though the man wouldn't understand him if he spoke quicker. "Nope, just figured if all the people who are going to lose here are going to stand I might as well enjoy my seat since I'll be winning soon enough."

The glares shot his way, by all rights should have turned him into nothing but smoldering ashes but he waved them off with a yawn. "Seems Konoha is as confident as always, sending a child into our midsts." Naruto just shrugged, he figured the guy probably thought he was ten or eleven years old, what with his height the way it was and all his training had done to destroy his baby fat.

"We gonna start or what?" The sound of teeth being ground down in anger was clearly audible, and Hana was staring at her teammate like he'd lost his mind. "We will, if you will announce the fights." One of the Jounin nodded stepping forwards with a clip board and began to read it off.

"First match will be Konoha versus Tsuchi, second will be Ame versus Tsuchi, third will be Kiri versus Tsuchi, and fourth will be Kumo versus Tsuchi. Winner of the first match will fight the winner of the second match, and winner of the third match will fight the winner of the fourth match."

Naruto almost scoffed at the fact that the Tsuchikage had entered in one team of genin for every team of foreign genin that had entered. That was a cheap way of trying to win the tournament, but it was commonly used by all the villages. "The first match will start in five minuets, competitors will be on the fighting field or will forfeit."

Naruto nodded to Hana and the two disappeared in swirls of leaves only to appear on the ground in front of hundreds of people. Both shrugged it off, Hana was grinning at him, but Naruto's face was hidden behind his mask so he didn't bother with such useless gestures. Three minuets later the Earth team walked out onto the field and towards their opponents. The Jounin instructors appeared right on time glaring at the Konoha shinobi.

"The only rules are to stop when told to do so. Hajime." Naruto and Hana just grinned; they'd already sized up their opponents. One was rather stocky looking and had a ton of muscle on his body. More then likely the brawler of the group, while the other was taller with the same muscles rippling on his own form.

Naruto's mind told him that the smaller one was the stronger and not to be underestimated, but his instinct screamed that the taller one was hiding something. Drawing his blade he readied to attack waiting for Hana to make the signal. "It is a pleasure to fight you scum, we are…" Naruto cut him off with curt, cold words.

"Don't give a fuck, just draw your weapon and let's go." With that the two leaf shinobi blasted forwards. Naruto being the shorter went after the shorter opponent to keep it even and as he swung his weapon he was only mildly surprised to see the earth rising into a wall of sorts. His blade slashed through it but in the time it had taken his opponent had already opened up the space between them and his hands going through more seals.

Dashing forwards again Naruto started on his own seals with the sword still in his hands. Seconds after he finished the seals a dragon made of the earth blasted at his short opponent. He heard a collective gasp of surprise from the crowds and ignored it. Raising his arm he slashed forwards a massive gust of concentrated wind ripping forwards and through the ground till it collided into the same area as the earth dragon had.

Naruto frowned keeping half his attention around him and the other half on Hana's fight. She was holding her own, her dogs knocking into the larger opponent without too much difficulty but something felt odd. Naruto kept the frown on his face, hidden from view through his mask, as he tried to puzzle out what was going on. A moment later it didn't really matter since he found himself jumping to avoid a fist only to catch a kick to the side of the head.

Naruto tumbled over a few times before jumping back up and catching the next attack on his sword. A low rumbling growl escaped the younger fighters lips before he jerked his sword back and through another side slash. His opponent dodged, but Naruto had finally managed to make a hand seal and ten Kage bunshin's appeared. A smirk was hidden underneath the young contenders face mask.

Together the eleven Naruto's attacked their opponent, each choosing a different attacking stance so that there would be no escape. At least one of the blades would have to nick their opponent. If he was content with dodging, of course he could always kill the clones. Naruto however had stopped playing around, and it was time to show some of his abilities.

His clones dodged through the sudden flurry of attacks headed towards them and converged on their prey. The sickening sound of metal slicing through flesh was heard and moments after the dog pile like attack the clones headed towards Hana's fight to help her. Naruto was kneeling down by his bleeding opponent.

He snaked his hand around the larger boy's neck laying the cold metal of his Tanto there and grinning. He leaned down whispering into the boy's ear, his voice sounding too sweet. "This is payback for that ambush your village planned against mine." With those words Naruto's hand jerked and the crowd gasped in surprise and horror at his actions.

By the time he stood up wiping the blood on his hand off on his dead opponents shirt Hana, with the help of his clones, had knocked her opponent unconscious. The Jounin referee showed back up stopping the fight and declaring the Leaf team as the winners. The earth team was being dragged off the arena for treatment.

Thirty minuets later, Naruto and Hana were back on the arena floor staring at another earth team. The Ame shinobi hadn't lasted very long and Naruto found this to a disappointment. He'd been looking forwards to getting some pay back for the pain he'd gone through on his first mission because of those damned Ame shinobi.

Though he had gotten some satisfaction to see that one of the Ame shinobi had been killed outright in the battle and the other was in critical condition. Naruto flexed one arm before drawing his sword and pointing it at the two Earth genin that were approaching them. "One of you will die… you may choose which if you're so inclined."

Naruto grinned at the suddenly pale expression of the shinobi on the right. The referee looked pretty pissed off at what he'd said but didn't say anything other then to start and a repeat of the rules. Before either team could move Naruto made a hand signal to Hana and waited for her nod. Once he got it a second passed before the two exploded into action again.

Naruto going after the shinobi who had paled because of his threat, he dashed forwards smashing the kids face with the hilt of his blade only to watch as he melted into the earth. Frowning Naruto turned looking around for any signs of his opponent. But a moment later he felt something wrap around his ankle and his weapon sprung into motion.

He was only pulled down to his waste by the time he had cut off one of the offending fingers. He regretted not getting the whole hand but as he yanked one leg out he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of a vicious taijutsu attack. He felt three of the punches hit before he managed to free his other leg.

However once he had managed to do so his opponent only landed one more hit before Naruto caught his next punch and pulled him forwards. His knee ramming into the other boy's stomach. Drawing his fist back he threw it forwards only to have it caught by the boy. Naruto frowned yanking his fist back and sending a kick towards his opponents head.

He ducked under another combo bringing his sword up to pierce the others head but only managing to barely scratch the others shoulder. He dodged to the side getting a scratch for himself from the others kunai. Naruto frowned, with his weights on this kid matched him in the speed department. He pushed chakra into his blade forming the wind chakra around it like he was currently being taught.

With the increased sharpness of his blade Naruto dashed back into his fight swinging his weapon straight down grinning when his opponent raised his Kunai to block. Naruto's weapon bites through the other with ease, like a hot knife through melted butter. A moment later Naruto grimaced in pain as another Kunai was embedded into his shoulder.

His own sword had finally sliced through the other boy's hand and into his chest, cleaving a fatal wound there. Smirking Naruto pulled his blade out of the other's body with a sickening 'squelch' and then tended to his own knife wound. He looked over at Hana watching as she and her dogs handled his opponent's teammate. They really weren't half bad, but he realized that without her companion's she was barely genin level.

He considered mentioning it to her, but it was none of his business, not any more. Maybe if there had been a second day to this tournament, or if he had considered it sooner, he might have said something. Now though it wouldn't make a difference, it was something her Jounin Master was supposed to teach her. Not someone who was outranked by here.

Shrugging his thoughts off Naruto cleaned his blade on his dead opponent's shirt before sheathing it. He disappeared in a swirl of leaves only to reappear right in front of a punch. He caught it, on his face and took a step backwards riding the force of the punch out before kicking the offender in the stomach.

It had the desired effect of knocking the other on the ground, which allowed him to be dog piled, literally, by the Haimaru Triplets. Two minuets later the Leaf village was announced to be moving on to the finals. Now all they had to do was watch the fight between Earth and Cloud and see who won.

Naruto had the feeling that Earth would win but pushed the thought away as he looked around for Itachi or Genma. They had told him that if he saw them before the end of the tournament that he and Hana were to flee Tsuchigakure and head back towards Konoha. He didn't understand the full reasons as to why, but he did know that it was an order. And orders were meant to be followed.

Naruto and Hana stood next to each other silently as they watched the cloud team being destroyed by the last remaining earth team. _"Those are not genin… I wonder what Tsuchigakure gets out of putting non-genin's in their own tournament. I know that with me here Master believes that the Tsuchikage will back off thinking of how strong the Jounin's must be with a genin of such caliber."_

Naruto frowned behind his mask as the two 'genin' from Tsuchigakure looked up at him as they killed their opponents. He understood the challenge but he wasn't sure why it was being issued. Konohagakure was the only one know as wanting to avenge fallen teammates with such a passion. Maybe they had been related to one of the two boys he had killed?

It was possible, but Naruto choose not to dwell on it for now. That fight had only taken about five minuets and judging from the skills shown they were mid to high chuunin level. Naruto growled slightly at his guess for their abilities estimate, it meant that he probably wouldn't be able to win this fight.

He knew his own skills; he was probably Low Chuunin level overall right now. If he was lucky that was. The last six months had been more focused on missions and as such he had not had a lot of time to train in anything. Sure he was keeping his skills sharp, and sometimes he improved on them even during a mission but that didn't mean much.

He frowned launching himself off the balcony with Hana close behind. She was probably closer to high genin level he figured, which meant they would last long enough to give up the match. Naruto slid his weapon from its sheath dropping into a defensive stance. This would be a difficult fight, that was for sure, but he had his orders.

Continue to distract the Shinobi of this village until they were done getting their information. The best way to distract them was through this tournament, since they were too preoccupied watching 'genin' fight. Naruto watched as the referee gave the two leaf shinobi sick grins before announcing the fight to commence.

No way was that man going to interfere; he would wait until the two leaf shinobi were dead first. Naruto and Hana watched their two opponents with wary eyes waiting for them to make the first move. It wasn't noticeable at first, but Naruto saw it quickly enough. Genjutsu. Bringing his hands up he canceled the technique just in time to catch the punch to his face and the kunai to his shoulder. He wondered briefly if it would have been less painful to stay in the Genjutsu.

This was stupid, he realized, since it would have only resulted in his death. The boy moved back onto his feet, watching as the two opponent knocked Hana into a nearby wall before advancing on him again. He barely stood a chance against one, his odds against two, he knew, were near nothing. Still orders were orders.

Charging forwards Naruto moved to start spinning using his wind chakra to make his blade sharper and smaller blades to hover around him. The draw back of this technique, it made him extremely dizzy and cost a lot of chakra. Since he didn't have the elemental manipulation down completely it drained him fast.

But at the moment this was all about having a crazy light show to get everyone's attention. As he collided with the two he heard grunts of pain before he stopped his world still spinning. Dropping into a low defensive stance to hide any swaying he may have done he focused on getting his eyes to stop spinning.

As they did he caught one punch from his largest opponent and a kick through the smaller one. It sent him and the other skidding backwards. But Naruto kneed the man in the gut before rolling over on top of him. Sword and Kunai locked in trying to slit the others throat. A kicked to his ribs dislodged him from the man, and as Naruto rolled back into a standing position he felt the brittle feeling of his ribs grinding together.

Another broken bone to add to his collection. He wondered how many more he would suffer before his bones became so dense with the calcium build up that they became nearly impossible to break. He was brought from these musings by having to dodge another set of attacks, but with his weights he was slowed too much. Another kick to his head and a follow up one that injured his knee.

He hit the ground hard forcing him back up, and trying to see straight. He caught two more hits before a flash of something in the corner of his eyes caused his head to turn and a grin to form under his mask. Naruto allowed the next hit to his face to get in angling himself so that he rolled and landed next to Hana and her dogs.

They'd apparently been dealing with Tsuchi Bunshin's and not all that well. "We need to leave, Uchiha-Sama's orders." The girl looked at him like he might have lost his mind, adding in a slightly questioning gaze. Probably wanting to know how he knew. The boy didn't bother to answer instead he reached into his Kunai/Shuriken pouch and pulled out twelve small balls.

Six smoke bombs and six flash bangs, a moment later fifty Naruto's poofed into existence around them. Half looks like Naruto and the other half looking like Hana. All the clones plus Naruto threw down the smoke bombs and flash bangs. The real pair disappeared while the clones charged into attack their opponents.

Naruto and Hana landed on top of a rooftop next to Itachi and Genma looking worse for the wear. Genma looked pissed off and there was certain maliciousness about Itachi's person. "Worthless Information?" Naruto grinned at the increase in killing intent from the two older males. Apparently he wasn't the only who found worthless information. Now he didn't feel so bad about that mess up two weeks ago.

† † † † †

**In Flight Edit:** Whoops totally forgot to address that issue Dameus brought up, sorry. I understand that his escape doesn't sound well executed and even impossible what with the fact that they are surrounded by HUNDREDS of people. But two parts have been left out.

Number 1; Whoever said anyone knew what was going on other then the Konoha Shinobi? Sure the Tsuchikage would find it odd that they would be trying to escape, if he realized what was going on in time. What Naruto did could easily have been seen as a stalling tactic for him and Hana to work out a better plan. And yes there WAS a flaw in the plan, purposely put their by me. I never said how Hana's fight was going or what techniques she was using in any of her fights, but the beast-human clone is a common technique used by the Inuzuka clan. So it stands to reason that in a quickly thought out plan this would come to him so he wouldn't bother making clones for the dogs. But he DID miscalculate and forget to make more of the clones Hana versus's him. He's not perfect and to portray him as such would be wrong.

Number 2; Not gonna tell you yet. It would ruin all the fun, but you will understand by the end of the story at least.

As for the fact of his Battle Experience, you are completely correct. The only times he gains it is for missions which intereferes with his training which makes it harder to get stronger. SO just because he might be Jounin level in abilities doesn't make him Jounin level in everything else. There's a catch to everything.


	6. Chapter 5: Academy Student

**The Lesser Evil**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything having to do with Naruto.

**Authors Notes: **I will apologize for the ridiculously long wait and not waste your time with the million and one excuse I have (some legitimate, many not). Plain and simple I was being lazy, I'll try and get the next one out ASAP (in my language this means before Christmas). Well little Naru's about to have some fun, and I imagine a few complaints about some of the stuff in here, but I claim artistic license. Just know that simply because something looks one way now doesn't necessarily mean that's how it will stay. If you left reviews look at the end of the Chapter for a comment on it, also if you see an asterisk (*) it will have an explanation at the end of the chapter for what it means and what not. Peace and enjoy.

**Chapter 5: Academy Student?**

The Hokage continued to work, his eyes moving rhythmically back and forth as he read the latest paper to find its way into his hands. He scowled at the council's newest request before using the large, red colored, DENIED stamp. Placing the stamp at the very top of the paper he threw it into the finished pile before grabbing another paper. The pile was dwindling, but he knew that in the morning it would be back to the same size as before.

An hour or so later, as the sun was starting to set four people appeared in the center of his office. All were looking the worst for the wear, blood covered, sweat soaked, and travel weary. The Captain of the team stepped forwards, his squirrel like mask an oddity in the ANBU corps. But then again on his team there was someone with a _bunny_ mask so maybe he shouldn't be so derisive of the man.

Squirrel bowed before starting his report, his voice taking on the regular monotonous quality all ANBU were taught in order to not be recognized. "Hokage-Sama, the team arrived on time at the destination and encountered no problems, initially. However upon the Target's arrival, the information given to us was proven faulty. There were more then triple the guards expected, and at least double the amount of shinobi."

The man paused, allowing the information to sink in. It was his way of explaining their appearance. "We attacked at the most opportune moment, and despite the extra amount of guards; managed to kill the target. However we encountered fierce resistance while we made our escape. In the end however, we either killed or evaded the rest of the problems." The old man nodded in understanding, it was a short and concise mission report but it told him everything that was absolutely essential.

"Thank you Risu-Kun*, I expect all of you to fill out your written reports and have them on my desk by tomorrow morning." Nods were his only answer; it wasn't like he had really expected anything else. "Zou-Kun*, Koara-Chan* you are dismissed. I need to speak to Risu-Kun and Usagi-Kun* in private." The two nodded bowing and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

The Hokage leveled his gaze on the two remaining members in his office, thinking of how to explain this next part. Taking an unobtrusive breath he started in, wondering if he would get any reactions out of him. "Risu-Kun, I'm sure you've figured out what this is about." The man hesitated before nodding, and turning his head to look at his subordinate. "Yes, I do Hokage-Sama. Do you really intend to do this though?" The old man nodded, not bothering with a verbal comment. Instead his eyes were examining the quiet ANBU member.

"It's time to make you an official shinobi of this village, Usagi-Kun. I hope that you are ready for this." The rabbit masked ANBU Operative nodded once before going back to his impassive stance. Waiting to see what else would happen, his dull blue eyes shining slightly through his mask's eye holes. "That's good then because you will be attending the Academy for the rest of this month, until the graduation exam." The Rabbit masked fighter turned his head slightly.

The only real indication that he'd heard anything that was said. However he still refrained from speaking, in his mind however he wondered why he had to attend that… place for a month when it would do nothing for him. How would it benefit the village to take him off missions for a month? He wasn't sure, but this was Hokage-Sama's orders, they had a reason. Of which he was sure, even if he wasn't good enough to figure it out.

"As you wish Hokage-Sama." The old man just sighed in mild frustration at the boy's compliant attitude. He did, however, refrain from commenting on it. This was how he was _supposed_ to be, even if it was saddening for an eleven year old to act thus. "Good. Your classes start at eight in the morning and end at three in the afternoon. Room Two Zero Eight, your instructor is Umino Iruka. I expect you to show up every day, on time to assist Iruka-Kun by doing your best. You start tomorrow."

The boy just nodded before bowing, he was taking that last sentence as his dismissal. He turned towards his Captain and gave a sharp nod before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. The Hokage sighed again as he watched the boy leave. "I will activate Nezumi from reserve to active status immediately Hokage-Sama." The old man just nodded before pulling out another form from his piles. "I'll get you another reserve member as quickly as possible Risu-Kun. That'll be all for tonight." The man nodded, disappearing as well.

He didn't understand why the Hokage was sighing in exasperation over his previous subordinate's actions. They were utterly correct. But then, these were none of his concern, so he decided not to waste any more time thinking about it. It was a shame however to be losing Usagi. Nezumi was good but the man just didn't have Usagi's instincts.

† † † † †

In the morning Naruto woke at his usual time of five, though admittedly he was feeling groggier then normal on this morning. That could be attributed to the fact that he hadn't gotten to sleep until around one in the morning. That was because he'd been ensuring his mission report was completed and perfect. Nothing was wrong with it, and it contained as much as he could recall (which was damned near everything, but he had a feeling he was missing something) and the spelling was right, so was the grammar, plus the handwriting was legible.

Shrugging the thought off, as he jumped into the shower. And right back out two and a half minuets later. He recalled the day he'd been pulled from his training center and been given this apartment. He'd been eight at the time, and been so focused on missions that he rarely ever saw his tutors. But then again they were also ridiculously busy with missions as well, so he rarely saw them even when he was around.

It had been decided that doing missions for the village was far more important and that he should know how to support himself. An agreement had been struck, between the Hokage and the council. He would get half the normal pay for any mission he did, since he wasn't a shinobi, and he would be set up in this small apartment. His training had been officially considered complete on the day he'd been handed the key to this apartment.

At the time he'd been officially low Chuunin level, and probably pushing Chuunin level, but it hadn't bothered him at all. They were his orders, and by that time the _incident_ had already happened. Emotionally he was dead to this village. Physically, he was their very responsive slave. For now he drove these idle thoughts out, locking them into a corner of his brain. He was dressed and ready to train, though he had just less than three hours until he had to report to Iruka-Sempai.

As he walked out of his sparsely decorated apartment he locked the door. It wasn't any deterrent from shinobi, but it did occasionally stop the less violent villagers. It was time for his morning warm up, and hopefully the Academy wouldn't be a complete waste of time, as he was prone to thinking. He _might_ get lucky after all.

† † † † †

Iruka walked into his classroom, a smirk adorning his features. As he pulled out his lesson plans, his mind wandered to his conversation with the Hokage. It hadn't been long, no more then seven minuets, but it _had_ been informative. Looking down at his attendance report he scanned down to the newest name on the list.

He hadn't recognized the name at first, but once he had he'd been surprised and angry. Like many, or in his mind everyone else, he had thought the demon boy was dead. Some how he had lived, and fate had chosen to put him into Iruka's classroom. Though he only had a month to pay the monster back for what he had done, he would use it wisely. His smirk darkened at his thoughts while he worked to set everything up.

Ten minuets later, at seven forty five, a voice clearing by his door interrupted his thoughts. In surprise Iruka looked up, all of his students knew that they could just come into the room if he was already here. Not only that, but they all knew not to bother him until at least seven fifty. But his eyes narrowed as he took in the person who had interrupted him.

In his doorway stood a young man who was about five foot eight maybe a little bit shorter. He wore a mask covering the bottom of his face, showing only his eyes. And he had the eeriest Reddish-blonde hair, almost like he had blood running through it. His eyes were the oddest blue and instead of having a round pupil like normal humans it was slitted like an Inuzuka.

His clothing was quite simply put, ANBU. He wore the ridiculously tight black pants and black sandals. He also had on the equally ridiculously tight black tank top with the white vest armor over it. The armor had cuts and dents in various places but looked well kept. He wore black gloves that extended up about an inch past his elbow with greaves over his arm, also white.

Over the back of his hands were white metal plates as well. He had Kunai and shuriken pouches on both legs, as well as a Tanto on each hip. On his back, over the right shoulder he had a wakizashi and over the left shoulder he had a Katana. The kid had muscles, his bicep and leg muscles showed the most because of the revealing material.

However, his chest and stomach muscles were hidden behind the armor. You could hardly see the black tank top underneath the white armor, but Iruka knew it was there. The young man was also missing the usual ANBU tattoo that would have accompanied such an outfit. He wasn't missing the mask though, for on his left hip, covering the Tanto's sheath a _bunny_ mask of all things rested.

The weapon looked around his new classroom and frowned. It seemed too… peaceful to be a place to teach others how to be shinobi. Maybe this was just a meeting place and they would get their physical exercise by going to a more appropriate place? He certainly hoped so at least. He allowed his eyes to rest back on the only person in the room, who was gritting his teeth and clenching his jaws.

The weapons head cocked to the side slightly before speaking, his voice was slightly deeper then a normal eleven year olds, but nothing like his body suggested it should be. "You are Umino Iruka-San?" He made the statements into a question, attempting not to anger his newest teacher. The other tool merely nodded before the weapon offered a polite bow.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto. Where would you like me?" The orphaned Chuunin wanted to scream out that he wanted this monster in hell but he bit his tongue. As he tasted the blood, he used the pain to calm himself down. "There are no assigned seats; you may sit where you wish." The boy-man just nodded before pivoting sharply and moving towards the seat directly next to a window in the first row.

Once seated he leaned back slightly resting a cautious hand on one of his Tanto hilts. He could feel his new teacher's fury, and the killing intent that was directed at him. He was, however, unsure of why this Chuunin seemed to dislike him so. Taking a breath the newest Academy Student in Konohagakure no Sato closed his eyes, intent on not angering his teacher any farther.

In five minuets not one word had been said between the room's occupants. Iruka had completely avoided looking at the young shinobi in training and Naruto just kept his eyes closed. Their hostile silence, was however, broken by the arrival of the rooms other students. Naruto opened his eyes when he heard the first footfalls entering the room and was surprised to see that eleven and twelve year old students walking in, in garish colored outfits.

Not only that but all of them were goofing around with each other, acting like this place was no big deal. Just another stroll through the park. Naruto cocked his head to the side in confusion, though before any of the other students began to take notice of him he straightened his head, hand tightening around the hilt of his Tanto. It was pathetic, fourteen kids had entered the room already and it appeared as though only two had noticed him.

One, Naruto easily picked out as an Aburame and the other was obviously an Inuzuka. Though Naruto had the feeling he was being watched by a third, unseen person. Avoiding looking around the young weapon closed his eyes again, fighting back the anger he felt rising. These… children were so carefree for people that would soon become shinobi. IT galled him to think that there were people aspiring to be weapons that acted like this when in a very short time they would soon hold a rank higher then he ever had.

Naruto had just managed to get a firm hold onto his temper when an arrogant, annoyed, and bored voice interrupted into his control exercise. "You're in my seat." Naruto's eye cracked open and he examined the other boy. This one stood at maybe five foot one or two, he had a very basic build with little muscle. His hair style was reminiscent of a ducks ass, and if the boy ever entered ANBU that would probably be his mask. A duck that was, Naruto wasn't sure they had any mask's that resembled asses.

While all that was very telling the most informational part about the kid, was the kid himself. He was the surviving Uchiha that was for sure. Naruto could see the resemblance between this child and the man Itachi. Though the resemblance was only in the facial structure, Itachi had been much taller and had more muscle. Again, that could probably have just been the age difference. Plus his eyes had told Naruto that he understood the life of a shinobi, this boy's eyes were just arrogant.

"I've been informed that there are no assigned seats Uchiha-San." Naruto's tone was quite respectful. This was not to be confused with subservient. He however really was unsure what he should think of the boy, he had been easily impressed by Itachi and some of that moved down to this boy but not all. The feelings might have confused him if he had not decided to follow the Hokage's actions, and the Hokage seemed to like the boy well enough.

"Everyone always sits in the same seat… and you're in mine." The Uchiha was unceremoniously cut off by what Naruto recognized as females. Though he had always though females were more like Tsume, Yuuhi, Mitarashi, or Uzuki-san. Then again if he had bothered to really think about the opposite gender a little bit more he would have realized that he had only met about twelve females in his entire life. Well that was excluding those he dealt with on missions, some of those missions no words were spoke between them at all.

These eight were not. In fact not only were they lacking the look of true Kunoichi but they all wore bright colors, well with the exception of one. But purple didn't count for much and her ridiculously long hair more then made up for that. They all looked pathetically weak and they were currently all screeching loud enough that Naruto wondered if he should ignore all his lessons and cover his ears. The Inuzuka sure was, and Naruto could feel his chakra rushing to his ears to dampen the banshee like shriek.

Now though he was in a bit of a quandary, he needed these squealing things to stop or his ear drums were going to burst, but Hokage-Sama had asked him to be good and respectful. What he wanted to do was put out some killing intent and tell the things to shut up, but that seemed counter productive. Especially since at least one of the females in the group was the heiress to a council seat. Rubbing his ears, Naruto decided on the easiest course of action.

He let loose a bit of killing intent as he stood up, purposely making a loud noise when he slammed the chair back. Naruto looked at the Uchiha and with his usual monotone like voice spoke, the annoyance all others felt noticeably lacking in it. "Uchiha-San you may have your seat and the… _kunoichi_ with it." The young weapon moved away taking a seat in the back right hand corner of the room where he had a view of everyone. Naruto's movements and words had the desired effect of shutting the banshee's up it also brought attention onto himself.

Back in the front row, Sasuke was watching the weapon with a badly disguised curious gaze. The, what appeared to be, older boy emitted the same feel that experienced shinobi did. Not only had that but of everyone, including his academy sensei, this other student come closest to being like Itachi. He had that quiet grace that once noticed was both ahrd and easy to forget. He moved like a predator stalking its prey, and wasn't afraid of making the killing strike.

These thoughts sent a small shiver up Sasuke's spine; he would look forwards to testing his prowess on this new person. Beating him would definitely bring him several steps closer to being able to finally kill Itachi. During his thoughts the lone Uchiha had failed to realize that Iruka was taking roll call and so when his name was called the young 'prodigy' snapped his head up in surprise before giving the customary here.

Iruka's voice hardened, and caused several students to break out into cold sweats as he unleashed a portion of his killing intent and glared hard at the seriously clad new boy. "Uzumaki Naruto." He didn't bother to make it a question, but Naruto decided to take it as one. Everyone else had answered with either the word here or present but Naruto, unfamiliar with such informal forms of address spoke the line that had been drilled into his head.

"Uzumaki Naruto present for duty, Sir." He curbed the urge to stand and salute, but barely. At least he'd caught onto some things, though he felt presumptuous for not doing so to this Chuunin. The other kids snickered at his formal monotone and choice of words, but when the new boy didn't respond they quieted down some and Iruka, after a boring staring match where he glared angrily and Naruto just watched passively, continued calling roll.

Naruto was briefly wondering if maybe the Chuunin was angry that he hadn't given the customary salute and resolved himself to make sure he did so next time. Of course this man would expect more from him, he was the weapon. Trained for years, he shouldn't have based his own actions off of the other student's. As the weapon took him to task, he did not fail to notice the curious looks, or the single hate filled glance.

† † † † †

Naruto had never been so bored before. For the first hour of class they had gone over history, history of all things. Naruto knew the necessity of knowing your village's history but these were things these children should have learned in their first year. Naruto had to physically restrain himself from leaving, losing his temper, or falling asleep. Of the four homework assignments Iruka had already assigned for this night Naruto had exactly none left to complete. Naruto was unsure why this place was taxing his abilities but it was becoming wearisome.

The second two hours had been filled with theory and mathematical stuff, and even, god for freaking bid, how to write legibly. Naruto after three hours of sitting through some of the most boring repeat lectures of his life found himself standing outside at eleven during lunch time. As the lunch bell had rung Naruto had been one of the last to leave the room, due to his seat in the rear. It hadn't bothered him though, the young shinobi found it reassuring not to have strangers at his back.

Naruto had not bothered to pack a lunch and had no intention of leaving to go and get some as several students were doing. Instead he found himself standing near a tree with a swing attached to it. He with grew his sword and proceeded to run through some of his more basic kata's. Not only would this help him get rid of excess energy, but also it would calm him down from the rising emotions he felt. Ignoring the stares the blondish red haired weapon swung his wakizashi and katana through their deadly dance.

After only ten minuets of his most base workout the weapon was approached. He swung both blades down barely missing the academy student. His blue eyes narrowed on the same boy who had brought the banshee's near him that very morning. "Uchiha-San." Naruto said the word without inflection showing neither respect nor disrespect. When he had been in training the Uchiha had demanded their respect but now that they no longer held a seat on the council Naruto was unsure if they should still be given the same respect.

No one had ever really clarified that issue for him, and the Hokage didn't seem to care either. "Who are you?" The weapon refrained from showing emotion, but inwardly he was wondering why he was being asked such a question. Hadn't the Uchiha been listening during roll call? "Uzumaki Naruto." The narrowing around the Uchiha's eyes and his slightly more aggressive stance told the weapon that this wasn't the answer the Uchiha had been looking for. "That's your name, but who are you? No academy student should be that proficient with swords."

Naruto blinked, slowly while trying to form his thoughts. Well that was probably a true statement; he'd seen Jounin's who had trouble keeping up with his blades. Still, his Kata's were the most basic and no matter how fluidly he ran through them, even Genin who'd been training could do the same. "I am an Academy Student, by decree of the Lord Hokage Uchiha-San. Nothing more and nothing less, a weapon for Konohagakure no Sato." This obviously wasn't the answer that the Uchiha was looking for either since he scoffed at the weapon's words. Now slight confusion did set in for Naruto had answered truthfully.

"Whatever, you're just a waste of time even with your Kenjutsu skills." Naruto merely shrugged, he would take those words as a dismissal. He lifted his swords again dropping back into his stance and going through the Kata's again. When the bell rang only four people noticed that after twenty five minuets of practice, fifteen of it constant, the newcomer had not worked up much of a sweat. Iruka glowered at the class as they made their way back toward the training grounds for Ninjutsu practice. Once they were all assembled in a semi circle around the man he began to speak.

"All right class you need to work on the Henge, Kawarimi, and Bunshin jutsu's." Naruto blinked as the other students split off to start working on the most basic of techniques and left the weapon in one of the most confusing places he'd ever been in. These were students who would be expected to turn into killers in a month still working on _these_ techniques. He twitched when a student failed to Henge properly and came out looking like a retarded, wart, covered, midget form of Iruka. He'd been watching the other students for about five minuets before Iruka approached him, a smirk on his face.

He was being followed by another shinobi, most likely a Chuunin, with shoulder length white hair. "Are you going to practice for the test Uzumaki?" Naruto turned his body to fully face the instructors, his face and body language as passive as ever. He knew that he was being watched by some of the other students. Unsure of whether this was a test of some sort the weapon chose to answer truthfully. "I don't need to practice such a simple technique, sir." Iruka looked annoyed, though he'd probably already known that Naruto could do the technique without fail by this point. "Well then you'll fail in the participation category."

The smirk on Iruka's face had the young weapon in confusion again. It didn't make sense that he should need to practice such a basic technique that used less then a percent of his chakra. "To get these… participation points I must correctly do each technique once, right sir?" The two instructors shared a look before the white haired one spoke up. "Yes. But considering who you are you will have to perform each one simultaneously." Naruto nodded, "Once that is complete may I practice however I wish?" Iruka sneered at him leaning forwards slightly till the two's faces were mere inches from each other.

"Only if you can do it." Naruto brought his hands up and started making seals, however neither of the chuunin's could really see what hand signs he was making. Naruto's real body now stood next to a tree, a leaf floating down to the ground where he'd used to be and two clones flanking it, one looking like the white haired Chuunin and one looking like Iruka. The weapon strode towards them not speaking until he was ten feet away. "Was that good enough Iruka-Sempai?" The two shinobi turned glares on the demon container before moving away, neither speaking but the sound of gnashing teeth was just barely audible.

† † † † †

Naruto had practiced with his clones after having shown his two teachers that he could indeed perform the techniques simultaneously. He'd used wind techniques and other basic ninjutsu against his clones, and they against him, in order to better improve his abilities. He'd also not wanted to show too much of his techniques, in case it cause problems. It was common practice for Shinobi to hide the true extents of all their abilities even from their leader.

Now however it was time for Taijutsu practice. Today was apparently a tournament day, where everything was set up so that each person had to battle another until only one could continue. Males against males and females against females. Though Naruto did not agree with that system, since in the real world females would often find themselves pitted against males. Naruto's first opponent was a boy named Shinji, from a civilian clan; he was the first of his family to enter the shinobi academy.

Having seen the boy struggle with the Kawarimi technique Naruto was confident that he wouldn't need to exert too much to knock the other student out. He was right, of course. The other boy had charged in, thinking to make a name for himself by taking out the new boy quickly. Naruto had merely to sidestep his opponent and knee the other student in the gut. From there it was a quick downward spiral where Naruto ruthlessly finished the other boy off using the hilt of his kunai to knock him out.

Naruto received glowers from the instructors as he stepped out of the ring, vacating it for the next competitors Aburame Shino and Kuruhei Shiho. This ended up being another quick fight since the boy freaked and fainted when the Aburame sent his bugs at him and relieved the boy of any excess chakra. When Shino had been exiting the marked off fighting area Naruto had nodded towards the other boy in approval. He received nothing in return, but had not expected to either.

In fact the only reason Naruto had acknowledged the other student was because he had been quick and ruthlessly efficient in securing his win. That was something many a new shinobi took a long time to learn, for this boy to already know it then he was far above the rest. Naruto remained standing where he was at something resembling attention but slightly more relaxed. He only noted two more interesting fights; Nara Shikamaru who had beaten his opponent without doing pretty much anything and Uchiha Sasuke who had fought Inuzuka Kiba. Naruto was of the opinion that the Inuzuka was much better Taijutsu wise and could have won had he been less arrogant and moved in more efficiently rather then playing with his prey.

However that was for the Chuunin Instructors to correct, not him. Though he did doubt that other then Iruka-san none of the instructors would correct the boy on his habit. They seemed too enthralled by the Uchiha. Naruto shrugged the thought out, watching as another boy was swatted away by a student from the Akimichi clan. These fights were drastically one sided. None of the non-shinobi clan students stood a chance against those who were in a clan. Which made sense, there was no one other then these politically minded Chuunin's to help them.

The first round of the male's tournament finished and Iruka announced the start of the females. Naruto thinking that the females should be close to the males abilities was sorely disappointed. The Hyuuga made a good showing, with the Yamanka a far second and a few other females close to the Yamanaka's abilities. Other then the Hyuuga, nothing was even noteworthy. The next round of male battles would be Naruto versus Aburame Shino, then Nara Shikamaru versus Uchiha Sasuke, Akimichi Chouji versus Fumio Aki, and lastly two twin boys that Naruto figured wouldn't last long.

As Naruto stepped into the ring Iruka leveled him with a glare and spoke with a condescending tone. "No weapons Uzumaki or you'll be disqualified." Naruto looked over at the Chuunin, his eyed betraying nothing but he nodded. "As you say, Iruka-san." He turned back towards the Aburame to see the bug-wielder already set in, not the Academy's Taijutsu stance, but a different one. More then likely one that favored his families' abilities to use their bugs as anything.

Though Naruto made it a habit to never underestimate an opponent because as he had been told to assume something about anything would only make an Ass of you and me, he made a mental note to take the kid on as though he were one of his old instructors. Naruto dropped into the normal academy style stance. If he was forced to use one of his more… lethal ones he would but for now hiding his abilities was a must. His hands itched to feel one of his blades in his hands, but he fought the urge off.

"Begin." The harsh tone Iruka used was lost on the blondish-red haired student when he shot forwards snapping his leg out in the text book style kick. He'd not held back and the other student's eyes hadn't even managed to widen in surprise when Naruto's foot made contact. The end of the match was about as explosive as the start. Unable to have even realized that he had been hit until after he had already been flying through the air and impacted into the ground, Shino had long since rolled out of the fighting area and impacted into the wall. Leaving a nice Shino size imprint with his body.

He didn't get back up. Naruto hadn't aimed to kill or maim the other fighter, but he had aimed to knock him out, he'd succeeded. However he had also grossly underestimated the anger the teachers might feel for the ruthlessness of his attacks. "You're disqualified Uzumaki for unneeded roughness." Naruto turned to _stare_ at the Chuunin; he held back the scoff and angry retort. He was a weapon, such things were below him. If he was disqualified then he was disqualified. He'd long since noted that all the losers had to do was sit and watch, when they really should have been getting practice from the three other teachers just standing around.

"As you say, Iruka-san. But I request to be released for the day, as it seems I will no longer be needed." Iruka looked annoyed and about ready to say no. It wasn't even one o'clock yet and they would be here until three, but the Chuunin was already thoroughly annoyed with having the demon vessel there and decided to jump at the opportunity to get rid of him. "Fine." Naruto nodded, bowing to the other shinobi before disappearing in a small puff of smoke. He had better things to do then stand around and watch other student's fight.

Plus the last two hours or so would more then likely be of no help to him what so ever. If what he'd already seen was anything to go by. He would go to the public training grounds and get in his normal work out, but first he would up the weights by a hundred pounds or so. If he was going to be wasting several hours a day playing at the academy he would have to train extra gruelingly. Nothing less then massive improvement would be accepted; he had a month before he would continue missions after all.

† † † † †

**The ANBU's Names:** This is the things with the asterisks (*) next to it.

**Risu – Squirrel** – Naruto's ANBU Squad Captain before he attends the Academy

**Usagi – Rabbit** – Naruto's ANBU Name and Mask animal

**Zou – Elephant** – A member of Naruto's ANBU team, before he joins the Academy

**Koara – Koala** – A Member of Naruto's ANBU team, before he joins the Academy

**Nezumi – Mouse** – A Reserve member of Naruto's ANBU team before he joins the Academy

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**To Hawk869: **You're completely correct. I think the same as you are, that Naruto would indeed begin to feel hatred. However I also believe that the rules that apply to ROOT also apply to Naruto. In ROOT it was shown (through Sai) that they had to fight and kills to get through their training and to their current positions. More then likely this also meant severely degrading missions and other such things. And yet all these people became utterly loyal to the man that caused them all this pain. Also, in my opinion, I think children who go through some traumatic experiences 'erase' those memories. They can still be recalled but only painfully and one would have to concentrate on it desperately to do so. Finally Naruto would also remember the only person to be kind to him, the Hokage, and would as such afford him to the complete and utter respect and loyalty he does. Finally he is also severely detached from his emotions, much as Sai was. Whether or not he can come back into touch with them remains to be seen, I might flip a coin to decide that. I hope I answered your review as best as possible.

**To Coca-Cola Classic: ** Thanks I really do apologize for the horrendously long wait and _will_ work on getting the next 'installment' out as quickly as possible. I hope you (and everyone else) enjoy this chapter as well.


	7. Chapter 6: Sensei

**The Lesser Evil**

**Disclaimer: I do not, in anyway shape or form, own Naruto.**

**Author's Note: **I quickly apologize for the ridiculously long wait and rather than boring you with the reasons why instead I say on with the chapter (I apologize for the ending in advance)

**Chapter 6: Sensei**

Naruto's eyes refocused onto the Chuunin teacher as the eraser sped towards the blonde/red headed boy. Lifting his hand Naruto grabbed the eraser and tossed it back, ensuring that he did not aim to knock the Chuunin off his stool. Again. The last time he had done so the man had spent an extra two hours talking about etiquette as though he was talking to a classroom full of mentally retarded children instead of Shinobi-wannabe's. Naruto drudged though his memories of the last few minutes to search for a provocation to the attack and drew up the question he had been asked thirteen seconds ago. Iruka wanted him to name the members of the Shinobi council, the advisors and who was on the civilian council.

"The Shinobi council consists of the clan heads of the Akimichi, Inuzuka, Aburame, Nara, Yamanaka, Sarutobi, and Hyuuga. It used to contain the clan heads for the Uchiha, Namikaze, Hatake, Senjuu, and Kurama clans; however those clans have since been annihilated or in the case of the Senjuu, left the village on a Sanin license, the Uchiha whose remaining heir does not meet requirements, and the Hatake who has declined to sit on the council but retains the right." Naruto paused to take a breath and allow the Chuunin to evaluate his words first. "The clan heads are as follows; Akimichi Chouza, Inuzuka Tsume, Aburame Shibi, Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, Sarutobi ******Seiyuuki, Hyuuga Hiashi, and Senjuu Tsunade. With the exception of the Senjuu, who have no heir, all Clan heirs are not in the direct line of the parents since laws state that to be clan head and be on the Shinobi council the Shinobi must be a Jounin."**

******Naruto paused again a look of thought on his face; he wondered if he should bother continue on the line he was on. He knew that he had already gone over what had been asked, but it was entertaining to watch the Chuunin below him turn red in anger. "The Advisory is made of two individuals, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu. These two were placed on the advisory council by Sandaime Hokage-Sama when he was initially inducted into the position by Nidaime Hokage-Sama. Since then Council Member Sumei Danzou has been considered a member because of his ties to ANBU and its sub-division but is not an official member." Naruto allowed a pause to enter his speech again before starting in on the Civilian council, but before he could Iruka interrupted.**

"You need to learn to be more concise Uzumaki. When your superiors request information from you they do not want to learn about Kami knows everything, they want the bare bones and for you to get your idiotic self out of their eye sight as fast as possible." Naruto closed his mouth and nodded, not showing the mild irritation he felt at being told off for answering the question in the way he knew Iruka wanted the other Students to do so. He also ignored the looks the other students were giving him, though was aware that there was no snickering like the first dozen or so times.

Now the students around him knew that it wasn't because he was stupid or answering the questions wrong that was getting him degraded but that there appeared to be tension between him and the teacher. "As you say, sir." He also knew that his ever respectful responses and posture annoyed the hell out of everyone around him. The teachers because they figured he was being contemptful of them, the students because they wanted him to be more like them. Iruka continued the futile glaring session that had been happening several times a day, every day since he had started four days ago, as this was his fifth. "Since Uzumaki here seems to be having trouble keeping up with our academic lessons I believe it is time to move onto a more practical application of your skills. This is an unannounced quiz, when your name is called you will all come up here and henge into a perfect copy of the Hokage."

Naruto had learned the third day that all these 'quizzes' because of his 'idiocy' were not meant to be challenging him but to be ostracizing him from his classmates. Not that it really mattered in the end; Naruto's own experiences had already made him far too different from these children to make it possible to get along. The groaning and glares that were shot him way fell off as water on a parka. He could hear some of the grumblings about why did that bastard's problems have to get them all in trouble. When Naruto's name was called he stepped forwards and without any seals, or real thought at all since he had memorized everything about his master, he transformed standing before the instructor looking the doppelganger of the Sandaime.

Iruka walked around his most hated student before stopping in front of him. "Remove the Hokage robes." Naruto did as told, revealing underneath and old fashioned Hokage's outfit and his receding hairline. With an annoyed growl Iruka waved his charge off and in a minimal puff of smoke Naruto was moving off again to take his seat. Iruka glared after him not even paying attention to the remaining students. He had yet to find a way to raise the boy's anger or even find something that he could complain about. It was clear that taunts did nothing for the boy, he never responded to them, and the demon had already been trained so he didn't even need to listen to know the material.

It was beyond irritating for the Chuunin to know that he hadn't done a thing to piss the demon off or even get back at him for his parents death. The smirk on his face though belied that he at least had something up. Naruto spent the rest of the day in a form of semi-consciousness. He was listening and yet not really paying attention at the same time. When the end of the day arrived the clone stood to leave and disperse itself away from the teachers when it was stopped by Iruka. "We know you've been using a clone for the past three days Uzumaki, and for this offense the council has called for you."

† † † † †

Naruto laid spread eagle, his slitted eyes glaring at the sky above him. The sound of his breaths echoed throughout the forested clearing and his ears pounded with the sound of his heart beat. The weapon clenched his fists while forcing his body to move upwards into a sitting position. A look of pain flashed through his eyes before he controlled his emotions again. Naruto shoved his body back up, taking notice of his still bleeding cuts.

Frowning the man/boy glared again at the sky his eyes taking notice of the suns position. It was about four give or take thirty minutes, which meant his clone should have dispelled. He just couldn't wait to find out what a waste of chakra that he turned out to be, but he also wondered what was holding the clone up. This was his fifth day attending the academy, but after the first horribly boring day he'd started sending a Kage Bunshin in his place and coming to this secluded training ground instead. It was certainly a better use of his time. He had initially wondered if Hokage-Sama would be angry, but had come to the conclusion that since he always found out what his Kage Bunshin was doing, had done, and had learned that he was still in the clear.

Naruto brought his hands up and a moment later somewhere around five hundred Kage Bunshins popped into existence, changing the sign he started to complement the Kage Bunshins with the Tsuchi Bunshins, Mizu Bunshins, and Rai Bunshins to keep himself on his toes. Bending at the waist he grabbed the wakizashi and the katana he'd dropped after his last exercise. Securing his grip on the weapon he placed himself into an atypical offensive stance watching the clones pull their own swords from the sheaths on their backs. A smirk threatened to show on his face, but he fought it back. He was a weapon and must keep the expression on his face as bland as those of his blades.

Utter expressionlessness was currently one of the most important things he could practice today. Especially since he had taken his mask off in favor of making sure his clones could read his body language correctly and make it harder on him. The sharp sound of twigs cracking from a clone's suede movement sent everyone else into a frenzy of activity. Naruto shot forwards sticking the wakizashi through the nearest clone. He smirked when the clone popped into nothingness instead of shocking him, he had figured correctly. Turning Naruto blocked attacks from the nearer clones before swinging his weapon in a broad arc, using his wind chakra to smash through the clones blades and bodies.

Once the five clones had disappeared Naruto used Kawarimi to avoid a Kage Shuriken no Jutsu or maybe it had just been several clones attacking in concert. Since he was unsure which it was he used Shunshin no Jutsu to move himself to another part of the clearing and attack from that direction acting like a one man buzz saw. Fighting back another smirk he smashed his armored forearm into the throat of another watching as the things eyes widened in surprise and went to clutch its throat just before disappearing.

This was where his luck ended however because a devilish smirk came across the clones face and as it popped out of its existence it exploded into a spark of electricity and Naruto grit his teeth while a slight yelp of surprise escaped his lips. He rolled backwards in a kind of reverse somersault. With an irritated growl that screwed up his face into some odd parody of an annoyed dogs, he launched himself back into the battle. With no attempt to hide it he smirked as his sword cleaved its way through several more of the clones. Some of those clones ended up being the Mizu or Tsuchi ones but he ignored that for now.

Those types were only a major threat when they were close to their element. The Mizu would have trouble here since there was no body of water nearby, but the Tsuchi would have plenty of area to disappear. It was a good thing that he was playing with a quarter of his mind focused on the ground below him to watch for any surprising attacks from the Tsuchi's. A second later he dodged left his hands flying through a bastardized form of the signs with the weapons in his hands. Once he finished he drew his head back, Katon: Housenka no Jutsu, was the only thought on his mind as he watched the little balls of fire flying towards the clones. He'd made about forty of the balls and took out about sixty clones.

With a snort of satisfaction, Naruto dove back into the fray to try and cleave his way through the remaining numbers. He was pretty sure that some had already escaped into the forest and that he would have to hunt them down in order to finish them off. But that was the way a real battle would work out. There was no guarantee that he wouldn't have to track down his prey and destroy them in a chase. Though he would have to remember to be on the lookout for traps, his clones had a bad habit of ambushing him when they did this.

† † † † †

Three hours later Naruto lay on the ground again this time his face was resting in it. He was covered in dirt and blood, but gave no attention to either. Pushing himself up with the help of the swords still in his hands Naruto stayed kneeling on the ground glaring at the puddle of blood forming below him. None of his wounds were serious but there were so many of the little ones that it might have to become a cause for concern. Before Naruto could continue to push himself up to a standing position he sensed chakra starting to form near him. His mind started to kick into overdrive until he realized that he recognized this chakra.

It was his master. Remaining in his kneeling position Naruto watched as with a puff of smoke, swirl of leaves, and billowing of his clothing the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure appeared in front of him with that same kind look in his eyes and face. The old man's eyes seemed to soften as they looked at the prostate weapon before him. "So how is your training going?" His words were spoken in his typical gentle baritone that calmed Naruto, despite his racing heart and heavy breathing. "Mediocre Hokage-Sama, I need to push myself to the next level in order to be of utmost usefulness to you but I lose valuable training time with the Academy taking such a large chunk of my day."

That was probably the closest Naruto had ever come to complaining or lying about anything and by the smile on the old man's face he didn't seem to mind. "Maybe so Naruto-Kun, but I didn't want you to attend the Academy to train. I wanted you to attend it to make friends, and bonds." The weapon blinked in his confusion, that didn't make much sense. Friends? Bonds? He knew what they were, in theory of course, but he couldn't really say that he had any. Well no, he realized, he had this bond with his master, but that was of course not the bond a friend would have with another friend.

Blinking the reddish-blonde posed his question as carefully as possible; he didn't want to offend his Master. "Sir… What use are bonds and friends? I have served you to my utmost ability for years now without these things and was under the impression that I wasn't causing problems but fixing them. Will these things make me a better weapon for you?" The Hokage's kind eyes took on a saddened tint as he looked down at the boy wondering how he could have allowed this to happen. With a slight shake of his head the Hokage plastered on his kindest, gentlest smile before he came to the conclusion of what he should say to the boy he had failed.

"You're right Naruto-Kun, you have served me greatly and you have caused no problems. Though I believe that with these friends and bonds that you will become the epitome of a Shinobi and this village needs that." Sarutobi did not mention that he also wanted the boy to be attached to someone else. Having just an old man as your reason for staying and serving a village that had done countless horrible deeds to yourself was not healthy. For the village at least. Naruto nodded his basic understanding of what the old man was telling him, but made no move to assure the man that he would rush to find those things.

He was unsure if he wanted them and since he had yet to be ordered to find them he wasn't going to think on it much. "I understand, Hokage-Sama. I will increase my efforts to learn about the other students in the Academy." Which wasn't going to be a lie, he would keep it in mind when he created a clone for tomorrow, and make sure to direct the clone to strike at least one conversation up with another student. But the Hokage's next words pushed that from his mind, as excitement began to course through his body. "That's good Naruto-Kun; however I also have a potential mission for you." The Hokage paused when he felt the excitement echoing from the boy's person.

He realized belatedly that the boy probably thought of this as one of his older missions, and he should have taken this into account. The boy, up until recently had been a veritable killing machine and then suddenly had to stop to attend something as utterly, breathtakingly peaceful as the Academy. "My apologies Naruto-Kun, this isn't a mission like you are used to, but I will look into getting you a quick one over the weekend. Here…" The old man reached into his robes and pulled a scroll out. He'd easily noticed the excitement dim down from the boy after his words had registered. It was still there, since he'd been promised a good mission.

He accepted the scroll without dropping a weapon or standing up; securing the delicate material in one of his Kunai/Shuriken pouches he looked the Old Man over quickly. "I'll read it and get start…" The Hokage cut the boy off with a slightly raised arm, and once silence reigned supreme again he spoke in his soft baritone."Naruto-Kun read the scroll first. You do not have to accept this mission, it is optional and I do not mind if you say no to it either. This is entirely based on what you want." Sarutobi made sure to stress the entire speech, but also to make sure he got it across to the boy that he wanted Naruto to choose whether or not he really should or would do this.

Sometimes having a weapon could be such a pain in the ass. The Sandaime shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts, as he brought his hands up making the seal for the Shunshin no Jutsu he spoke again, "Naruto-Kun I expect your answer by Monday. Drop by tomorrow after your classes and I'll get you a quick solo mission." Naruto never bothered to answer as the old man disappeared the same way he had appeared. Once he was sure that his master had disappeared he forced his battered body up, smirking as he did so. He'd take training lightly tomorrow in order to ensure that his mission went well over the weekend.

Before Naruto had taken ten steps his steps faltered only to continue onwards again, the memories of his clone had returned. At least now he knew what was in the mission scroll that Hokage-Sama had given to him. It also appeared that Hokage-Sama was not in line with the council and that the two were not agreeing on something. Interesting. If it came down to it, Naruto was loyal to the Hokage first, the daimyo, the village, and then the council.

† † † † †

Three and a half hours earlier, Naruto's clone had been standing at a stiff attention before his tertiary set of masters and mistresses. Iruka had escorted him to the Council hall, and Naruto knowing the laws of the village had been expecting to see the whole assembly and the Hokage, the Shinobi council and the Hokage, or the Advisory Council and the Hokage. Instead he found himself facing the two advisory members and the Root ANBU leader. Carefully he bowed to them, ensuring that he was three inches short of how low he went for the Hokage. "Honorable Council Members, you have summoned me?" His voice held the long term respect that had been beaten into him.

The first to speak was the old war hawk with his numerous injuries. Naruto's eyes never wavered from their focus on the opposite wall. He remembered several meetings with this group and the Hokage. They preferred if he remained at the Soldiers version of attention the entire time instead of the Shinobi one. They really didn't like it when he allowed his eyes to wander around the room. "Kougubuki*, you have been effectively ditching your academy lessons. This is an offense to us as the council and to your Master the Hokage. It is also insubordination, as you were ordered to attend and assist Umino-San by doing your best every day. You know the punishment Kougubuki."

Naruto nodded imperceptibly to the three members before him, but knew that the council alone could not take action against insubordination as it would have to be the Hokage who did so. He was the one who had issued the orders, and as such he had the sole right to execute the punishment as well. This was where Homura decided to pick up the thread. "We are however willing to lessen your punishment if you agree to do two things Kougubuki. We, as the Advisory Council, had paid for a mission. We want you to train Uchiha Sasuke so that he may be better prepared to kill his brother and aide our village. Sandaime has however chosen to make this a voluntary mission. We will revoke that."

They gave Naruto no time to reply however Koharu picked up the conversation seamlessly. Naruto wondered briefly if they had practiced this or if they simply had the same thoughts so often it was customary to finish each other's sentences. "We want you to train the Uchiha in Kenjutsu, Chakra Control, Taijutsu, Stealth, and Ninjutsu. You will be allowed to choose how you do these things and though your methods may not be as brutal as your training was you may be much harder than the Academy or Jounin Sensei is." The man paused studying the weapon before him for signs of acceptance but only found the mild interest most ANBU showed at all times. "You will be expected to continue the training until the mission is revoked by us or the Uchiha decides he no longer needs your services. This will pay the same as a C Ranked mission every Week."

Danzou picked the thread up again, though he at least allowed several seconds for Naruto to completely assimilate all the information. "The second task will be that you report to ROOT headquarters during the day, while continuing to send clones to the Academy, for training and a refresher course on eliminating your emotions. Umino-San has brought your emotional outbreaks to our attention Kougubuki and they are not tolerated. You will be released at the same time as the Academy Students and you will show up at the same time the Academy starts. Do you agree Kougubuki?" Naruto continued to stare at the other wall for several seconds before responding. His tone was as always respectful.

"You're words become my orders, so long as Hokage-Sama hands me this mission Honorable Council Members." The group nodded smirks adorning their old faces. They looked at him before giving a dismissive wave of their hands. "You may leave; we have already informed Uchiha of his possible training." Naruto bowed again, still ensuring it was never as deep as the ones to his master before the clone released the Jutsu disappearing in a puff of smoke.

† † † † †

Naruto stood outside of the Konohagakure Academy watching from his position on a tree limb. His clone was already safely seated inside having the morning stare match with Umino Iruka. There were still a good five minutes before his target generally showed up and while Naruto watched the approaching students he wondered, briefly, if any would even notice him. The answer was simple and not exactly surprising either.

With the exception of the Inuzuka none of the students that were trekking in, even seemed to realize something was different. With the Inuzuka, all it amounted to was several barks from the feral boy's dog and a quick look around from the boy himself. Naruto smirked before disappearing, and not with the Shunshin, he was using his own speed. Naruto hooked his right arm around his targets waist and smirked at the looks of surprise and pain that came across the target's eyes.

Naruto landed with a slight thud on a roof top fifty feet from the Academy. Turning he looked at his target, making sure to take in even the slightest of things about the boy. Naruto pulled out a scroll and placed it in the Uchiha's hands before turning and starting off. The boy looked surprised and nervous, but also triumphant and expectant. That wouldn't last long and Naruto defiantly looked forwards towards the boy's facial and vocal reaction to what was written on the scroll. It had taken him several hours last night to come up with an answer to his problems.

With that little errand done, Naruto figured he would head off and get in some light training before he went and accepted his mission. Nothing settled a person's soul and mind together better than some good old fashioned body breaking training. Just hopefully he didn't get injured too much this time, or he might encounter a few problems during the mission.

† † † † †

The weapon smirked as he pulled the two tanto's from their sheaths. Hokage-Sama had, had a very nice mission for him today. The weapon dropped between the rafters touching down on the wooden floor boards below him without making a sound. Moving forwards his eyes roved over everything ceasing to stay still. The young Shinobi stalled at the bamboo sliding doors before pushing off and sticking to the walls above the door. Seconds later the doors hissed open with only the raspy sound of wood on wood.

Red flecked blue slitted eyes narrowed on the two men who entered. Neither was his target, but of course, neither could now live. The fact that he was here might be remembered by some odd part of the brain that wasn't functioning at this moment. The weapons eyes became slowly colder as he dropped to the ground behind the two people, reaching out he snaked the sharpened blades between the two lovers and drew it back with a slick rasp. Smirking, the weapon caught the two bleeding males easing them to the ground.

Before either had completely bled out the Shinobi was gone, several rooms away. He knew that now he would have to move much faster than previously expected. The two dead males might be found at any moment and if they were it would take somewhere between three and six minutes for the guards to respond and get into their correct positions. The weapon knew that no matter what once those guards were in position he would not be able to finish his missions, satisfactorily.

Especially since he was not supposed to be found out, if he was it could bring major problems for Konohagakure in the near and far future. The weapon slunk through the hallways, ears and eyes open for any evidence that someone else was in the area. Once the weapon had entered into the correct room he moved towards the bathroom, intelligence had been correct. His target did regularly come to his room at this time.

Smirking the cold eyed killer moved into the thick spray that the shower was giving off, his ears picked up the obvious sounds of sex. He couldn't smell it because of the mist but that was fine, as long as his target was facing the correct way he could kill the man without raising any alarm. The weapon slunk through the mist until he was standing behind his target, towering over him and his lover. The weapon's eyes took into account the sudden horror and widening of the woman's eyes but before she could scream he'd already plunged one blade through the man's chest and into hers and through the throat.

The weapon smirked turning and leaving while the water cleaned the blood from the crime scene and his body.

† † † † †

A smirk flitted over the bunny masked ANBU's features as he looked over at the Hokage's monument. He was actually moderately surprised that the kid had managed to do it. The lude and offensive paintings that now decorated the Hokage's monument was currently being washed off by two separate teams of Genin's. One of which seemed to have two clones on it, though they were poorly made clones. After all, they weren't even the same height. Shrugging the thought off the assassin moved off, disappearing in a swirl of smoke and leaves. As he appeared again, he found himself standing in the Hokage's office, kneeling with one arm resting easily over a raised knee.

He noted, dully, the four Jounin standing in the room and quickly ignored them. Placing the scroll on the Hokage's desk he spoke while finished the hand signs for the Shunshin. "Mission accomplished and accepted." With that out he disappeared, planning on showering and then looking for his newest mission. Naruto landed watching as the black haired pre-teen focused on the Kunai in his hand yet again.

While at the same time he was forced to run laps around his personal little training grounds. Pulling out a shuriken Naruto threw it and watched as it smashed into the Kunai the other student had just managed to hold up with his chakra. "Did you master it Uchiha-san?" The Uchiha spun around his hands moving towards his weapons pouches only to stop once he recognized who had been speaking. He seemed to flush, not in embarrassment, but in anger at the question.

"No… but I will have it mastered by Monday." Naruto shrugged jumping down to land in front of the Uchiha, speaking at the same time. "Fine, but you'd also better remember that I could have easily been your brother in a Henge just to throw you off. Stay on your toes and paranoid at all times. I'll be here Monday at five o'clock, you'd better be ready." Black eyes narrowed on his ANBU clad form, and Naruto could feel the anger at being called on his mistakes.

It appeared that he had been correct in assuming that the Academy Teachers had not called this _prodigy_ on all his mistakes. Naruto didn't care, the other boy would get used to it or he wouldn't be taught. "You painted the Hokage monument, and obviously weren't caught so you pass with the stealth. If you pass these final two tests then I expect you to show me the same respect you do the teachers at the academy. I will become your Sensei, not someone who is below you but you're superior. Remember it Uchiha-San because I will not accept less. The council may have tasked me with this training but Hokage-Sama has made it clear that I am under no obligation to do so."

With that out, Naruto disappeared again remembering for the millionth time why he loved the Shunshin no Jutsu. It was by far the best technique ever created and the person who had created it deserved fifty billion yen a day for it.

† † † † †

Naruto had woken an hour earlier than earlier in order to get in some stretching himself and spy on his prospective student. The boy had woken at around 0430 hours and Naruto had watched as he'd slowly gotten ready for the day. At 0450 hours the boy had sat down and started eating his traditional breakfast, he was finished within five minutes and dashing out of his house towards the Uchiha's Training Grounds. Naruto beat him there and when the Uchiha dashed through the trees to find his new teacher standing with arms crossed in the center of the clearing he swallowed the lump in his throat.

Naruto watched the boy with his animal like eyes, and before the boy was even close to him he started speaking. "You will demonstrate what you have learned. Start with the Chakra Control, then stealth, and finally your speed." Sasuke said nothing back only moved over to a tree and calmly walked upwards. He made it passed Naruto's halfway mark but fell before he reached the two thirds mark. Naruto watched him land and then disappear into the woods. Naruto focused about the amount he figured a Genin could, and felt Sasuke's chakra signature moving. However he heard nothing until the boy reached the edge of the clearing.

Nodding Naruto made a slight movement with his hand only to have Sasuke appear next to him and dash around the clearing. His legs pumping and breath coming in short, very short gasps. Naruto paid no mind keeping track of the time until the boy came to a stop back in front of him after having ran two miles worth of laps. Naruto looked at the other boy silently for several seconds before speaking. By that time Sasuke had managed to get his breath back, though from what Naruto could tell by watching his carotid artery his heart rate was still accelerated. "You barely managed each task. I thought you were praised as a prodigy."

Sasuke stiffened at Naruto's words and his lips drew back in a snarl. Naruto hid his self-satisfied smirk as Sasuke snapped back with the words he had expected. "Once I get my Sharingan…" Once the name of the famed bloodline left the boy's mouth Naruto interrupted. "That's right, once you get it. This is the crux of all the problems Uchiha-San. You are worthless and nothing more than an average Shinobi without your kekkei genkai." Naruto ignored Sasuke's outraged look before continuing on. "We will remedy this and with your Sharingan your abilities, I estimate, will more than double."

Sasuke seemed to puff up with pride at that, though Naruto made no comment about it. It would not take long for Sasuke to realize that even with a Sharingan he would not be invincible. "There are several rules, however. The first is that you will not whine or complain about any of the training. You will not question my methods; they have been tested and proven. The second is that you will not demand anything, I will teach you what I believe you need and no more. The third is that you will follow orders like a true soldier."

Naruto couldn't believe how angry the Uchiha looked and mentally added some Emotional training in his their training schedule. It would be beneficial if the other boy learned how to control his emotions much better. "Punishments for breaking the rules can include my dropping your training, but will more than likely be a more physical punishment. Do you agree and understand Uchiha-San?" Sasuke seemed to mule over the words for a bit; it was obvious that his pride rankled on taking orders like this from someone not only his age but actually several months younger. Not only that but this boy didn't even have a tie to any of the important clans.

"Yes." Naruto nodded before turning and dropping the two swords strapped to his back on the ground, and then he removed the arm guards. "You may use one Kunai; this will be an evaluation match." Naruto paused watching as Sasuke started to remove his pouches before dropping the bomb. "If you fail to satisfy me, I will kill you." Naruto wasted no time after that shooting forwards and catching the Uchiha with a sharp right hook. The day before Naruto had gotten as much information on the Sharingan as possible and learned that in most cases the Kekkei Genkai was awoken by extreme emotions normally brought on by a life or death situation.

It would take too long to train the Uchiha without that ability and so Naruto would awaken it. With these thoughts Naruto smashed the Uchiha's nose into his face with his left fist before catching him with a glancing blow to the ear. The Clan Heir finally managed to get himself under control and came back at Naruto with a vengeance. Naruto caught the other boy's wrist twisting it painfully and nailing the Uchiha in the ribs with a hard right jab. Sasuke took this moment to sag and place all his weight in Naruto's arm; however he misjudged Naruto's strength and was thrown viciously into a tree.

"This is a pathetic showing Uchiha-San. The council will be disappointed when I deliver then your dead body." Naruto avoided the next combo of punches and kicks before catching one and smashing his elbow into the Uchiha's knee. A sickening crunch was heard and the Uchiha's prepubescent voice screamed out. Naruto threw the other boy away again, only to raise an eyebrow in satisfaction at the slight red tint the other boy's eyes were beginning to take. With this show of support Naruto dashed forwards catching the Uchiha with a vicious upper cut and then a knee to the face.

The sound of cartilage snapping echoed around the clearing as Sasuke's nose snapped against Naruto's knee and coated it in blood. This was when Sasuke started to show some skill. Using the Kunai Sasuke swung it towards Naruto's femoral artery but only swiped air and ate dirt as Naruto dodged backwards. Naruto's foot back down hard on top of the Uchiha's back grinding him into the dirt only to hear the sound of wood snap under his foot. Jerking his head up quickly Naruto crouched down and jumped before the ball of fire could smash into him.

As Naruto somersaulted over the massive ball of flame his eyes came into contact with the Uchiha's and a smirk covered his features as he was charged. Catching the punch Naruto pulled the Uchiha closer in order to knee him in the solar plexus only to throw the boy away as quickly as possible when he felt the cold bite of the Kunai. Smirking Naruto looked at the blooding cut that had taken about an inch of his flesh off. "Good, Lesson One complete." Sasuke blinked in surprise wobbling as he stood there, blood running off from several places and his lack of balance from a broken knee cap.

He intelligently replied, "Huh?" Grinning Naruto appeared next to him looking completely unruffled, completing a series of hand seals, much slower than normal his hands glowed a greenish blue before he knelt and ran it over the Uchiha's knee smirking at the sudden snapping and half scream from the Uchiha. Then he stood running his hand over the various dangerous cuts and bruises before his hand stopped over the Uchiha's nose. The healing chakra yanked the nose back into place and stopping the bleeding. Sasuke collapsed with the healing finale but still hadn't deactivated the Sharingan and Naruto scoffed before speaking.

"Two things for now. One, your pain tolerance is pathetic, we will work on that. Two, deactivate your Sharingan we still have a lot to do and using too much chakra will only hinder us. Also from now on we will meet here at five every morning and then again at four in a place of my choosing every night." Naruto watched with a certain amount of satisfaction at the boy's sudden surprise and then smirk as he worked on deactivating the technique. Naruto created a clone that grabbed his weapons and Sasuke's bringing them over before forty nine more joined it and moved over to the other side of the clearing. Sasuke was watching with curiosity.

"We will work on your Weapons throwing abilities until seven. It is six now, so we spent a good hour of me pounding you into the ground just to awaken that Sharingan and explain your new training. So use your Kunai and Shuriken to nail the clones in the vitals, if you miss the clones will catch it and throw the weapon back causing you damage." Sasuke nodded grabbing his weapons before lining up and starting his assault. Of the fifty Kunai and fifty Shuriken that he threw in round one, forty nine were thrown back resulting in forty nine small cuts on the Uchiha.

"They aren't even moving and you still only have a fifty one percent success rate. Take better aim, and use your Sharingan, you need to work with it in order to evolve it to stage two." Sasuke gritted his teeth picking the weapons back up, all of which were speared neatly around him. Round two and three showed small improvements and an increase in the number of small cuts on the Uchiha, it was round four that the Uchiha had finally made a breakthrough. Though it had taken thirty minutes Naruto couldn't help but smirk as he watched well over four fifths of the weapons nail the clones in vital spots.

In fifteen minutes Sasuke was destroying sixty five clones at the same time without fail or missing. As Sasuke started to collect his weapons again Naruto spoke, "Good, now that we've wasted forty five minutes we can finally make you aim at moving targets. The same applies only now you don't have to throw in bulk. There will only be ten clones." Naruto created the ten clones and they moved while Sasuke went after them. Fifteen minutes, a completely unacceptable amount of time, was how long it took Sasuke to destroy all ten clones. He also missed about seventy percent of the time, even with his eyes.

Naruto created the clones again and proceeded not to pay any attention to Sasuke, merely making more clones as ten were dispersed. In his final remaining half an hour Sasuke had managed to improve enough that it only took eight and a half minutes to destroy all ten clones, and he was only missing about fifty five percent of the time. Creating a clone Naruto sent it to heal Sasuke of his wounds and then head off to the Academy with him while he took off towards Root headquarters.

† † † † †

Naruto and Sasuke had made it to the Academy with five minutes to spar and taken their seats, bottom right. Naruto then proceeded to spend the entire amount of time Iruka focused on Academics to plan out Sasuke's training for the rest of the day. He knew that Iruka was watching him not only blatantly ignore the lesson but also what he was really doing. This seemed to please the teacher and the rest of the Academics were spent with Iruka not calling Naruto out or even glaring at him. This had several students sending confused glances at the older looking boy who was clearly not paying attention.

However, it was around lunch that Naruto's so far good day was sent down the drain. Naruto had just stood when he was accosted by none other than Hyuuga Clan Heiress Hinata. He stopped as she stood in front of him an impassive look on his faces while he stared. "You, who are you?" Naruto raised a single eyebrow before answering in his typical way. "Hyuuga-san I am Uzumaki Naruto, Academy Student and Tool of Konohagakure." The Hyuuga's pale eyes narrowed on his muscled form before she growled lowly.

"You're lying. My father would never have warned me about you if you weren't dangerous or lying about who you are." Naruto's blond/red eyebrow remained slightly raised as he spoke, ignoring the superior tone the Hyuuga had. "If I were not who I was, would confronting me really be smart especially if it was known I was lying about my identity. It is then assumed that this identity is supported by Hokage-Sama and as such you would then be infringing on an active mission which would make you a liability." The way Naruto said it made it clear that he seriously didn't think he had a different identity only that he thought she was an idiot for doing what she'd done.

The audible sound of teeth grinding could be heard but Naruto had already turned and walked away, ignoring the slight smirk on Iruka's face and the slight crowd the argument had drawn. Once outside however Naruto was interrupted again by and enraged yell and a growling dog. Ducking Naruto caught the fist that came flying over his head and heaved the dog boy over his shoulder. He knelt down his hand stopping on the Inuzuka's neck.

"A problem Inuzuka-San?" The dog like Shinobi growled irritably back up at him before responding in a gravelly voice. "You… you bastard! You had better stay away from my sister or I'll pound you into a pulp." Naruto blinked before going over how many Inuzuka's he had actually met personally. Only two came to mind, Tsume the clan head, and Hana her daughter. So that must mean that Kiba was the younger child, and thus didn't know that Naruto's only contact with his family was through missions.

"Inuzuka-San, I believe your sister is Hana-San?" The boy below him growled before nodding grudgingly. "Then you should know that the only contact I've had with your older sister were only ever professional in nature." The boy growled again as Naruto let him up, though before Naruto could get away Kiba started yelling at him again. "Bull shit! I hear Hana telling my mother that you were fuckable, no way in hell only 'professional' meetings would get Hana to say that."

Naruto blinked in confusion, had he been less of a tool he would have probably repeated the word back as well. Instead he merely shook his head before replying in a level voice. "I am not at liberty to discuss Hana-San's and my own encounters however know that they were merely professional." Naruto's now bad day was expounded on when he turned to leave and get some peace and quiet only for the lunch time to end. Naruto swore viciously in his head as he trudged back inside, nursing his new headache.

By the end of the day at the Academy Naruto's headache had just started to ebb. It seemed that because Naruto was willing to train the Uchiha and be the Council's dog, the teacher was going to allow some transgressions on his part. With Academy day finally over and good riddance at that, Naruto turned to the Uchiha who had been following him out of the room. "Follow." With that single terse word Naruto shot off with the Uchiha close behind.

The real Naruto landed with only a dull rustle of the grass below him and even that was completely muted by the waterfall. His face was not the usual careful blank mask that he had cultivated over the years, but a true step towards the direction of emotionlessness. The black mask that covered his face from nose down showed no outline of his mouth and his eyes had a curious blankness to them, though there was still a slight spark of something within them.

Red flecked blue eyes focused on the Uchiha has he ran into the clearing close behind Naruto's doppelganger. The Uchiha's eyes widened in sudden astonishment at the sight of five hundred Naruto's working at walking up the waterfall, Naruto gave them but a cursory glance before addressing the Uchiha. "Come; let's spend some time improving your Taijutsu." Sasuke nodded while Naruto settled into a stance waiting for the Uchiha to approach.

It didn't take long, seconds after the Genin to be had set his own stance he'd attacked, taking no time to look for any weaknesses in Naruto's own. Naruto started with dodging several of the swipes and watching the Uchiha's personal style with mock interest. His clone dispelled while they were doing this and Naruto assimilated the training schedule the clone had created for the day. Nodding, almost imperceptibly, to himself Naruto started after the Uchiha.

Lesson number one would be Taijutsu and pain tolerance. If the Uchiha couldn't cover the weaknesses in his own style or exploit the ones in Naruto's then he would learn how to deal with various broken bones and cuts. For two hours Naruto pounded on Sasuke, it wasn't really so much a lesson in stances but one of experience. Sasuke needed to learn how to handle someone, taller, stronger, faster, and more experienced then he was. Beat it into them on how to handle the strongest opponents and the weaker ones quickly fade into the background.

Though admittedly, unlike the progress with Weapon accuracy that morning, no real progress was shown after the two hour beat down session. Sasuke had started to learn to dodge more and not waste unnecessary energy with wasteful blocks and he had started to cover his weaknesses slightly more but beyond that he failed to progress any more. This only affirmed that Sasuke was just an average, well as far as average for a Kekkei Genkai user could be, Shinobi and was not in fact some kind of prodigy. Throwing these unnecessary thoughts off Naruto pulled a scroll from his bag and tossed it to the Uchiha, who stared warily at it still trying to catch his breath.

"In that scroll is a Tanto, we will begin your Kenjutsu lessons with you learning how to handle first one tanto then another as well. You will learn to fight with it in hands, throwing it, and using it for less obvious maneuvers. Now you can activate your Sharingan, you'll need to memorize the stances and fighting positions." Sasuke nodded and watched as Naruto pulled out one of his tiger tanto's and watched the stances while Naruto explained both the strengths and weaknesses of the pose and their follow up ones. He flowed between the poses, fast enough for it to look fluid, but slow enough that Sasuke's eyes had no problem following it.

After an hour of stance work or more like thirty minutes of memorizing it and then thirty minutes of Sasuke flowing through the stances Naruto started to explain their workout schedule, all the while making Sasuke flow through the stances and focus part of his attention on his newest instructor. "We will meet every day after the academy from fifteen hundred to nineteen hundred, my clone will lead you to wherever I feel like training at that time. We will only meet Monday through Friday, the weekend is your time to work by yourself and on things I won't teach you." Naruto paused surveying the Uchiha quietly as the other boy flowed through the stances.

He had been right; Uchiha Sasuke was not a prodigy or a genius. He was merely willing to work much harder than anyone else, for the moment anyways. "I advise you to still work out in the mornings from five to seven thirty and especially to work out on the weekends as well. If you can master what I have to teach you quickly we can move onto the more advanced things." With his little speech now complete Naruto moved and started adjusting the minute mistakes in the Uchiha's stances. It had more to do with weight placement then foot or hand work.

Naruto's eyes flitted to the sun watching it for several seconds; they didn't have too much time left for the day. Naruto figured thirty more minutes of working with the Tanto and then he would show Sasuke how to do a Chakra Control exercise before sending the boy off and starting his own training up again. Shrugging the thought off Naruto slipped in front of Sasuke drawing his left tanto and moving after Sasuke in the offensive stances. Sasuke immediately adjusted and started to perform the correct defensive stances. Muscle memory was the most important thing they could work on for now.

Especially since the stances translated pretty well from Tanto to Wakizashi to Katana, it only took slight adjustments for the new reach advantages and the weight of the new weapon. While Naruto and the Uchiha continued to work on drilling in the stances a clone sat off to the side taking notes on what needed to be worked on, if the Uchiha thought he'd be getting power easily he would be sadly mistaken.

† † † † †

**Kougubuki –** Kougu means Weapon and Buki means Tool so WeaponTool. Just a note, it was meant in a condescending manner when the council uses it but Naruto takes it as a compliment.

**Chapter 7: Shinobi – Genin: **I am just starting this but (for once) I have the outline completed already. I will try and get this out quickly, obviously no guarantees. I apologize for Chapter 6: Sensei now, I know it got disjointed after the mission.

**A quick Seek Peak at Chapter 7:**

The red eyed Jounin sat stiffly, her blood red eyes boring into the three silent students before her. Her voice was a soft lilt belying the strength that she commanded. "We should all introduce ourselves so that we can better know our teammates." The woman waited for one of them to either go first or suggest that she show them what she wanted, but they continued to stare at her. It was almost as if they found her lacking in some way. "Ahh well I shall go first then. I am Yuuhi Kurenai and I like training in Genjutsu and encouraging the ability in others, I dislike perverts and scantily dressed people as well as traitors, my Hobbies are stretching my imagination, and my Dream is to become the most renowned Genjutsu Mistress."

The woman stopped watching her three students before sighing and pointing at the brown haired boy to go next. The boy paused to ensure he was the one she wanted before speaking, his voice quit and barely heard even with the dead background. "I am Aburame Shino, and my likes are my bugs and Nature, my dislikes are those that mistreat bugs or fear them irrationally, and overly emotional Shinobi. My hobbies are conversing with my bugs and studying more types, and my dream is to have at least three hives at once." Kurenai nodded, no emotion showing on her face while her eyes transferred to the only female of the team.

Taking the hint the girl spoke, her voice taking on a slightly condescending tone that failed to hide her excessive hubris in her clan. "I am Hyuuga Hinata of the venerable Hyuuga clan. I like improving my Juuken, I dislike arrogant branch members, my hobbies are ensuring my knowledge of village and clan politics, and my dream is to improve the Hyuuga's standing in the village." Kurenai turned to her third student; the only one she actively thought might cause any trouble at all and waited for him to introduce himself.

Back at the academy three students sat in the empty classroom awaiting their terminally late sensei. Two of these students stared emotionlessly at the blackboard while the third irritatingly tapped their foot complaining about late teachers.


	8. Authors Note

_**Authors Note:**_

I am Back and working on the update for this story. It should, SHOULD, be up within the next two weeks. Again it all depends on how busy Ft. Bragg keeps me.

As it says on my profile, I have recently joined the army and just now come back into contact with my lap top, so I can start updating again.

I again, apologize for not mentioning this or placing the story on hiatus. That's the past I will however put in my good newly found army work ethic and try to get you guys your chapters in a somewhat reasonable time frame.

I hope all those who did enjoy this will continue to do so.

Finally; this AN will be removed as soon as I complete Chapter 7: Genin. Know that I have already started the chapter and have the full outline. All I need to do is completely re-read the story to get the feel for where I was before I left and I can finish it. I will update as soon as humanly possible.

I bid you all adieu for now, and peace out.


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